Chinese: Starving. Send food.
Russians: Having a hard time ourselves. Tighten belts.
Chinese: Send belts.)
By Juan Montoya
You can sugar coat it any way you want, say it won't hurt a bit and pretend its business as usual. But the blood-letting that is about to happen at the city and school district will include considerable collateral damage and will leave many walking wounded.
The City of Brownsville is reportedly considering many options to cut its personnel and operational costs. There is fear and trepidation ion every department as the bean counters strive to find corners that haven't been cut and fat that hasn't been trimmed.
There are rumors that management is considering buying out some of the more senior employees including department heads and freezing promotions and new hires.
The warnings that a shortfall would come were evident as early as last August, when the city faced a $4.4 million shortfall. At the time, officials have said either the property tax rate would have to be increased or services to the community would have to be decreased.
There was even mention of Brownville’s Public Utilities Board increasing its water and sewer rates that would eventually lead to the utility provider increasing its contribution to the city.
With PUB already providing a yearly transfer to the city and the commission going to the same well for an additional $3.5 million last year, it is doubtful that the commissioners can pull it off again.
Now, as the chickens come home to roost, some say that longtime employees are considering their options as talk of a city buyout of higher-paid employees raises in pitch.
"We heard that some department heads were thinking of retiring this year, but when the talk of a buyout started, they put it off hoping to get a better deal if they stuck around," said a city worker. "Last time this happened, some city workers were picked up at PUB and the city departments were left with middle management and inexperienced employees."
The same trepidation that is being experienced by city workers is also shared by employees at the Brownsville independent School District.
Trustees there – after the election-year hype in 2010 that indicated the district was in fine fiscal shape – now face, depending on which scenario you believe, losing anywhere from $15.9 million to $50.6 million in state funding for the 2011-2012 school year.
The Brownsville Herald reported today that "among the proposals are cuts in stipends, cuts in transportation, offering incentives for early retirement and not filling the vacancies, eliminating team teaching in the middle schools, consolidating small schools, and consolidating summer school to a minimum number of campuses."
And as the departments come under the fiscal microscope, personnel cuts are almost a certainty.
Everybody around here is walking on tenterhooks expecting the ax to fall," said a teacher. "We are looking at some of the non-crucial services offered by the district first. But either way, people are going to lose their jobs and that is bad for everybody in the city."
6 comments:
Speaking of personnel cuts, they should consider the employee benefits department, many of those employees just sit there and giggle away the day looking pretty, while a select few do the brunt of the work.
Board wants to fire the Superintendent. Board meeting is on Monday at 1:00 p.m. More legal fees for BISD adding to their expenses.
I've come to the conclusion that Brownsville will never prosper because the majority of the people employed here are "TAX DOLLAR EMPLOYEES i.e.. teachers, college professors,city/pub employees, state,county, federal, etc. etc." These people are out numbering the private sector TAX PAYING EMPLOYEES, which means the public sector employers pay ZERO NADA ZILCH TO THE TAX COFFERS. It doesn't stop there add ALL THE ILLEGAL ALIENS & ANCHOR BABIES WE THE PRIVATE SECTOR HAVE TO SUPPORT. AND DON'T FORGET THE MASSIVE CORRUPTION & STEALING DONE BY THE LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS!!! THIS IS WHY WE'RE SO DAMN POOR.
I'M A TAX PAYING EMPLOYER WHO HAVE HAD IT!!!!!!! I AM IN THE PROCESS OF "VOTING WITH MY FEET" AND WILL RELOCATE TO A MORE PROSPEROUS AREA OF TEXAS WHERE MY TAX DOLLARS WILL BE APPRECIATED AND WELL INVESTED IN THE COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
Go ahead and leave. It's obvious you're not a good business person. If it's so bad here, why do we have the Wal-Marts, the Sprint stores, Verizon, Sunrise Mall, plenty of hospitals to choose from as well as doctors, etc... It's so obvious you're envious of others.
Hey, Montoya, where is your comment on BISD? Don't tell me you are supporting the Corrupt 4?
Let us hear from you!
Which "corrupt 4"??? It seems that this community goes from one group of corrupt officials to another group of corrupt officials. As Dr. Tony Zavaleta has said, "Corruption is a part of the Mexican culture and we should accept it." Add to corrupion the "la jaiba" nature of this culture and we can understand why Brownsville has its image as a "Third World" city.
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