Eavesdropping On the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation

ITEC Center

Sitting alongside the wall of what is actually the BEDC Board Room, it seemed as if we were unbelievers at a prayer meeting, not a conclave of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation.  There is an element of prayer, praise and testimony to such meetings, not necessarily from an impure motive, as all desperately want to believe even the self-generated hype that our city is on the road to economic viability, but the strewn carcasses of Titan Tire and other failed projects haunt the sacred grounds of the ITEC Center.    Spending tax dollars to lure businesses to the Texas tip is an inexact science.

City Finance Director Pete Gonzalez opened the meeting with prayer, bowing his head to mumble inaudibly the GBIC Financial Report.  Without a copy of the report like board members,  an observer could barely make out the five cities of the RGV with higher per capita sales tax revenue than Brownsville; Mercedes, Weslaco, Edinburg, Harlingen and, of course, "always kicks our ass" McAllen.  Brother Gonzalez meekly pointed out the one category where Brownsville was No. 1; population.

Board member Sandra Langley mentioned the obvious business growth of Harlingen, new medical facilities in Edinburg and the outlet malls she said benefited Weslaco.  Gonzalez quickly corrected her, stating that the outlet malls were in Mercedes.(Brownsville and McAllen are likely out of the running for outlet malls.  Clothing retailers like Dillards and Old Navy don't like their outlet units in close proximity to their first run stores.)

Although Ruben Gallegos gave some neat quotes about SpaceX("The buzz in the public schools about SpaceX is amazing!" and "I need a Launch Brownsville t-shirt is double X petite.") and David Betancourt had a question, Jason Hilts handled much of the agenda, including the "Administrator's Report regarding area economic growth.

Jason Hilts

Hilts first addressed the departure of AeroMexico, the airlines that had been providing service between Brownsville and Monterrey at the Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport(Is it now international?).  A delegation including Mayor Tony Martinez and Airport Director Larry Brown went to Mexico City to visit with AeroMexico officials, who cited declining ridership and more Brownsvillians driving to Monterrey because of increased government security along the carretera.  Customers had indicated that the the two hour pre-flight requirement for international flights, coupled with the location of the Monterrey Airport at San Pedro, an hour from the city, meant that customers could almost drive from Brownsville to Monterrey as quickly as they could fly and then taxi into the city.(Direct flights from Monterrey to Laredo are still ongoing.)

T-Mobile was another GBIC subsidized company that departed Brownsville.  Hilts mentioned that a firm he called Gladiator(Again, I did not have access to the glossy printouts board members were reading.) would need 300 employees "immediately" and 600 eventually.  Hilts was giddy that 19 more attended the recent public meeting on SpaceX than attended the original scoping meeting and that Elon Musk himself tweeted him "twice" during the event.  He casually mentioned $500,000 for Stargate and 9.3 million to run cable and electric.(Editor's note:  MMB is on record as not opposing SpaceX, only its proposed location.  The mystique of space travel may blind us to the fact that this proposal is only for a commercial launch site, like several others in the country.  50 years from now we will regret tainting 8 miles of pristine beach area at Boca Chica for a noisy commercial venture.)

Hilts next wooed the board with the possibility, no, near certainty of a Finnish company locating a metal foundry on 75 acres, providing 1300 jobs within 8 years.  The Euros have business with Monterrey, but desire a more secure, but close American location.  They need machinists, but, even more importantly to the newly proposed Tenaska, 35-39 annual megawatts of power.  They instantly become P.U.B.'s best customer if they locate as planned in 2014.  Adding icing to the cake, a raw steel company from India now wants to come, to do what Hilts initially described as "forgery," drawing a laugh from City Attorney Mark Sossi.  Well, ok, metal forging.

The loquacious Hilts next turned his attention to the Port of Brownsville's ship channel where he said a dredging to a depth of 50 feet and width of 300 feet was needed at a cost of $290,000,000.  Closer examination found that by forgetting the width, but simply dredging to 52 feet would slice $100,000,000 from that cost.  They were looking for funding for that 13 mile project, Hilts stated.

Possibly, the most intriguing words on the agenda were included in an Executive Session that was called off:  "the acquisition of land for economic development projects and the development of the FM 511 Corridor, related plans for downtown, and airport pursuant to Texas Government Code 551.087.

What was that about?