More Economic Development Hype from the 4/17/14 GBIC Board Meeting

Jason Hilts

Jason Hilt's BEDC Director's report is well worth the price of admission to GBIC's monthly meetings.  Hundreds of jobs at many dollars per hour roll off his tongue at each meeting, so many, that I find myself no longer writing down the numbers.  By now, certainly every Brownsville resident should have at least three high-paying jobs, if even 10% of Hilts' tantalizing projections over the last few years proved true.

At least the old west medicine shows selling Dr. Gillespie's Magic Elixer at a dollar a bottle never visited the same town twice.  

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But, each month, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation Board pencils in a director's report for Hilts, forcing him to revisit his notes, repeat what he said last month and the month before about Finnish foundries, Turkish pipe builders, desalinization plants producing clean water, exporting soda ash, etc.  

Anyway, at the 4/17/14 GBIC Board Meeting, Hilts mentioned a few things he hadn't said before:  Project Sizzle is still on the "back burner."  The Finnish

foundry is now joined by an Italian company, intrigued by producing steel, shipping it to Monterrey, Mexico. Caterpillar is said to be a potential primary customer of the steel produced by the foundry proposed adjacent to the Port of Brownsville.

An unnamed Mexican maquiladora is said to be contemplating a move to Brownsville, based on access to the Port of Brownsville, security and cheaper power.

I'm not exactly a true believer as shown by these observations from a 5/24/13 Mean Mister Brownsville article:
"When Administrator Jason Hilts appears before the GBIC board, his mission is two-fold; tantalize the board with their favorite buzzwords indicating economic growth, increased revenue AND reassure the members that his tireless efforts on the city's behalf justify his six figure income and lavish travel. Hilts is a salesman and those in sales are always aware of the need to "sell themselves."

One company will provide "300 jobs immediately" but eventually need 600 full-time employees. Another firm will add "1300 jobs over 8 years." "100 machinists at $20,00 per hour" has a nice ring in this impoverished community. While the company's name may be somewhat obscure, we all learn the particulars, however overstated. Just to illustrate, think SpaceX. Even young Debbie Portillo is repeating the line "1000 jobs at a minimum of $55,000" although Elon Musk says nothing close to that in official company projections.

Ruben Gallegos took the bait, or was perhaps cleverly setting up his friend Hilts with: "That's a lot of work, Jason."

Hilts responded: "Yes, it's a lot of hard work." What Hilts had been describing and Gallegos lauded was the process of finding 75 appropriate acres for the Finnish foundry. "We had a perfect site until we found that the electrical service would not be P.U.B." When someone whispered "Magic Valley," Hilts nodded. Another site, near the port, thought also to be "perfect" was found to historically have been a landfill, not the proper ground to take the weight and constant pounding of a foundry. The picture is painted that Hilts is carefully protecting all our interests, maneuvering things so that a $200,000,000 company becomes part of the Brownsville tax base and spends its megawatt energy dollars with P.U.B. Yes, Hilts is selling Hilts."