𝗘𝗟 𝗥𝗥𝗨𝗡 𝗥𝗥𝗨𝗡 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗦 𝗕𝗖𝗜𝗖 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗪 𝗧𝗔𝗫𝗣𝗔𝗬𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗨𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗟

After not blogging or reading the efforts of other bloggers for three days while doing my federal and state of Iowa taxes, I read a contributed story on Juan Montoya's El Rrun Run that made my blood boil.  The story was about travel plans for Brownsville's taxpayer-supported Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, the BCIC.

Carelessly-dispersed tax dollars always remind me of the frail, elderly woman in front of me at the Cameron County Tax Office, surrounded by family.

Maybe 4'9", bent over with osteoporosis, she clutched a worn envelope secured with rubber bands.  

She had my full attention as she slipped the rubber bands off the envelope, removing three one hundred dollar bills, then a couple twenties, a five and several ones to hand the cashier what I presumed to be her annual property taxes.

Years after technology has rendered in person travel to "seminars" unnecessary, the boys and girls of the taxpayer-funded BCIC are still milking taxpayer funds for travel, just as their ignominous predecessors on the BCIC, GBIC and now defunct BEDC boards.

Notice the pending travel requests for just the BCIC Board posted in El Rrun Rrun:

The word "travel" on the search feature of my blog, the Brownsville Observer, brought up dozens of articles and I got writer's cramp just making notes from 2013-14:  10 people to the Texas Trails & Active Transportation Conference~$14,000, Planning Department under interim Director Ramiro Gonzalez spent $18,702 on travel in 2014 with Ramiro himself pocketing $4,748 for attending two seminars including $71 per diem for meals, 4 young men to the American Planning Association (Noe Puga, Trey Whittemore, Adolfo Pereira and Craig Grove) for $5,539.50, Ramiro Gonzalez again, to Boston for $2,523.50, Dallas for $829.50 and Seattle for $2379.50, Port of Brownsville's pudgy Ralph Cowen and Eduardo Camparino to eat in China, meals alone costing $1,800 and $1,600, City Commissioner's trip to Denver to accept the All-America City Award cost the taxpayers $24,120, not to mention 16 trips to Bogota, Colombia to learn about bicycle riding, the delegation headed by BEDC Director Jason Hiltz and Mayor Tony Martinez(Hiltz refused my Public Information Request for the amount spent unless I coughed up $270 for "labor"to do the research.) Hiltz during his tenure as BCIC chair spent a whopping $312,541 on travel that could be documented.

Former BEDC Chair Jason Hiltz, "King" of Taxpayer-Funded Travel

All of the above was gleaned from just a few Brownsville Observer articles in 2013-14.

With modern technology easily connecting people from around the world for conferences, why in hades, ten years later, are Brownsville's taxpayers continuing to foot the bill, including airfare, hotel and eats, for these leaches?