LIKE US, UTB-TSC MUST LIVE WITHIN ITS MEANS

By Juan Montoya

In November 2004 the taxpayers of the Texas Southmost College district (Cameron County, including Brownsville Independent School District, Los Fresnos Independent School District and Point Isabel Independent School District) voted for a $68 million bond package to build new facilities on the UTB/TSC campus.
The $68 was used to leverage other money and has resulted in construction of six new buildings, several remodeling projects and various capital improvements.
Some of these projects include: ITEC Center that focuses on international technology, education and commerce;
The Recreation, Education and Kinesiology Center which houses Health and Human Performance classrooms and labs and provides a fitness facility for students, faculty and staff;
The Center for Early Childhood Studies to serve 3- to 5-year-old children and allows for hands-on learning for UTB/TSC education and child care students;
The University Boulevard Classroom Building which provides medium and large lecture halls to handle projected growing enrollment;
The University Boulevard Library and Oliveira Library to replace the former functions of the Arnulfo L. Oliveira Memorial Library and to include new technology in the University Boulevard Library; The Arts Center that includes practice rooms and a recital hall to meet the needs of the growing music programs; The Science and Technology Learning Center which will be used for research and outreach focusing on health problems that concern our community.
All of these projects seem well-intentioned and – if properly administered – would be considered an asset to any community. However, newspaper headlines indicate that cost overruns and change orders have eaten up a large part of the taxpayer-funded construction bond issue even with a bond construction consultant on the payroll.
The new library, for example, was built with inadequate shelf space to hold all the books that the old library had. As a result, modifications (read change orders) had to be added that drove the price up yet further still.
In fact, many books on the shelf were actually thrown away because there was no room for them in the new facility. This choice of style over substance is a detriment to local students who needed these books for their courses.
And who can forget the scandal which erupted when the administration attempted to use the bond money to pay for a $640,000 mural for the face of the UTB-TSC library? Only after a "dramatic response" from the community over the school’s use of local tax dollars was the project put on hold.
Candidate Robert Lopez said that tuition costs at TSC have escalated so dramatically under the old crew including fees that TSC students now pay almost $5,000 annually while Austin Community College charges $1,638 for the same education.
"Why are our families paying $3,000 more yearly?" he asks.
And while we're at it, let's call these "bond" money what it really is – basically future debt to be paid off with property taxes of the district taxpayers.
Our local families who fund the bulk of these projects know that when times are tough, they must exercise fiscally conservative policies and live within their means. These examples (and there are more) indicates that perhaps our college administrators and our board should take a tip from our local residents and live within their means and implement policies that guarantee efficient use of our money and require architects and contractors to justify their costs.
We need to elect candidates this go-round that will challenge the wish-lists of the TSC administration and change-order kings and local contractors.
We'll go with Kiko Rendon, Lopez and Trey Mendez.