The Cameron County legislative delegation is whimpering now that Hidalgo County political powerbrokers have schooled them on the proper way to twist arms and get things done up in Austin.
None other than Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa took Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. to the wood shed and taught him a thing about how to steer a bill through the Senate Committee on Higher Education that would place students in the first two years of the planned UT System medical school in HIdalgo County and then have them take the last two in Cameron (Harlingen).
The committee approved the bill unanimously despite the appearance and protests against it from a number of small-town luminaries that included the mayors of Harlingen and Brownsville bearing a petition of more than 1,500 supporters.State Rep. Rene Oliveira, who had co-authored the bill in the House, said he was "disappointed,"
Sen. Lucio – in a performance worthy of the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz – said he was waiting until the bill, HB 1000, got to his turf (a conference committee) before he took action.
"At this point I will be able to to discuss what I feel," he told the local daily. "We will be able to shape the bill into a bill that we can send to both chambers."
For now, he said offhandedly, he is not worried even with the end of the legislative session looming in three weeks.
"We have enough time," he said, flexing his muscle for his adoring fans.
Hidalgo County has also flexed its muscle. It has already offered the UT System $100 million in incentives fro the UT System to bring the med school there.
Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia said the commitment from the legislature to establish the first two years of the school there is necessary since his county will establish a taxing district to raise funds for the medical school.
Oliveira said that the new amendment puts access of UTB and UTPA to the Permanent University Fund (PUF) in jeopardy. The fund generates roughly $13 billion annually for the two systems. The valley schools are the only two units in the UT System and the Texas A&M System who do not share in the PUF.
"We're not just talking about the medicla school," Oliveira, who sponsored and voted for the TSC-UTB "partnership" 22 years ago and accepted Brownsville's exclusion from the PUB, lamented.
This new wrinkle from the Hidalgo delegation should give Mayor Martinez and his Brownsville cronies room to pause. They, after all, hired Hinojosa's former chief of staff Rene Ramirez as a lobbyist to look out for Brownsville's interests in this legislative session at $60,000 for two months.
Ramirez is not only a former administrative assistant to Hinojosa and a former interim Hidalgo County Judge, but he was hired by Brownsville for the sole purpose of "killing" the five Extra Territorial Jurisdiction bills being carried by Lucio in support of the small cities in Cameron County.
These bills were referred to the committee that Hinojosa chairs.
The rrun-rrun in Austin is that Hinojosa will not even schedule these bills to be heard before his committee. The rumor is that these bills are already dead.
So why pay $60,000 for something that is already a bygone conclusion? It is an open secret that Hinojosa despises Lucio and that any bill that Eddie sponsors before this committee will be DOA.
There's more.
Brownsville is squandering money on a lobbyist who has been hired by the County of Hidalgo as their lobbyist to make sure the new UT System medical school is built in Hidalgo County. So much for throwing good money after bad.Hinojosa is the vice chair of the finance committee that ultimately will decide on the funding of this medical school. We are told that Hinojosa already has the votes to have it built in Hidalgo county, and that Rep. Rene "SpacyX" Oliveira and Lucio are furious with him because he has these votes.
Would the city officials who persisted with hiring Ramirez on this quixotic quest against the ETJ be surprised if every single resident in Cameron County would be upset at Brownsville for hiring a lobbyist that is lobbying to get the medical school built in Hidalgo County?
14 comments:
Ruff! Rrruff ruff! Woop! Woop! Woop! Hahahahaha! Bunch of stooges!
I was wondering when the chisme about Ramirez was going to trickle to our part of the woods because I read about this days ago in The Valley Morning.
Chuy H. is a tiger for his constituents unlike the pussies we have here. Puras ratas de dos patas. We deserve what we get for being a community of pendejos because most of us demand corruption for a plate of fajitas.
Our very own Commissioner Gowen, who called for the UTB political forum against Uresti, had the audacity to leave early to "go represent Brownsville" at a committee meeting in Hidalgo County!!!
What a hypocrite!!!
She went to represent herself! Probably trying to kiss her fat ass into a cushy position up there while she positions Brownsville for a kick in the ass!
it's about time these elected officials are seen for what they really are useless(useless adj. Being or having no beneficial use; futile or ineffective. Incapable of functioning or assisting; ineffectual). if we are going to progress as a city we need politicians that will fight for a seat at the table ,not ones that will settle for table scraps.
Queremos Halcónes no gaviotas...
The Brownsville mayor supports the Med school in Hidalgo co. because the Hidalgo POWER BROKER Alonzo Cantu has connections in DC with the prez to get the mayor's son on the federal bench, and to get him an appointed position like Tony Garza had, now that the mayor has fulfilled his resume obligation of being mayor ( the only civic activity he has ever done).
The difference is that the people and businesses of Hidalgo County are willing to invest, while Cameron County seek the welfare direction.....want it free. Hidalgo County has advanced because of their willingness to invest, while Brownsville has regressed because of its unwillingness to invest. Who gets the federal funds....those (Hidalgo County) who demonstrate a willingness to contribute financially, or those (Cameron Count) who want the feds to fund it all. Typical in the RGV.
Folks this pie cutup was made several months ago when the race for the medical schools started. Gosh i got to congradulate those hidalgo folks and my hat off to mtthem, as my grandfather would saya all the time; eel que tri mas saliva come mas pinole, and this one got away from cameron and harlingen and brownsvilles folks, ya ni llorer es bueno. To the victor come the spoils. thank your bunch of elected democRATAS again for a job well done. adios
all you pendejos out there... si es tan facil... why don't you all run for office?
Es bien facil rascarse la panza, criticar a lo pendejo, y estar colectando unemployment y lone star.... sucking tit... haber mamones let me see if you all can do it better? No que no? Entonces no hablen nomas a lo pendejo... porque para eso si somos buenos los Mexicanos.... para decir puras pendejadas!
5:22
You can in part blame Carlos Cascos and wannabe sheriff Homero Barrera for making obtaining a building permit so fu(*&^@ difficult my friends from Hidalgo say that have tried to open a business here have said they will NEVER try again. We won't to keep it real...real dumb...real corrupt...pinches building inspectors like Noe Benavides that has no clue what he is doing and the other ojetes insuating that it'll take lots of money to fix. We have had a cancerous crooked system that people like Barrera try to exploit. No leadership! Crooked judges! Crooked lawyers!Crooked cops! Crooked permit handlers! and crooked politiqueras. Chingado cabrones read a freaking book and get educated.
The Lucio boys have no pull or weight in Austin? Their lobbyist couldn't pull this off? They caved to that slanted hat of a crook in Hinojosa. Or did the Lucio boys take some greasing to allow the amendment to pass? How much money are they going to make for allowing it to go to Hidalgo County? With a medical school in Cameron County, it only makes good business sense to put it there? Now us taxpayers from Cameron and surrounding area with get screwed while Hinojosa gets rich?
The reason why the city of brownsville Cameron county can't fund or create incentives is because cities like brownsville and harlingen politicians are busy trying to fill there coffers. with a monopoly like PUB, stupid mayors and commissioners to be and of the past, stupid BEDC'S that continues to make bad business decisions by opening up industrial parks as empty as a hazmat site, a ridiculous united/imagine brownsville which has done nothing but leach off of the poorest community in the nation, and now we have an increase on tax rates to build some unneeded energy plant which would cost more to build and maintain than purchase supposed future energy needs from edinburg's and/or harlingen's future energy plant (seriously has anyone on the commission even recommended an independent cost benefit analysis before an approval is made), you have a corrupt port that is stealing millions if not billions of dollars from our local economy, ect., ect., ect., ( I could go on and will in due time) you/people wonder how or why the upper valley seems to always have the upper hand on Cameron county. What we just witnessed was in the nations poorest economic region a fight between two disabled people. Much like that south park show where the two crippled were dukeing it out, we were just shown that in the state of Texas and even the nation, Cameron county was on the losing end of that fight. How pathetic. The sorry part is that most of us knew we were going to be on the losing end of that fight when it came.
I apologize in advance if anyone feels offended by my use of handicap to give the example but that's how I picture this fight and will give a link to the program for reference.
juan looks at he herald and monitor today and looks like a deal has been cut, a 2 for 2 deal 2 years here and 2 years there. this rice is cooked.
hold the press, chuys deal was thrown out from the committee so now its up to the board of regents committee, and i just remebered doesnt hidlago county have one person on that board, oh well, it was a good thought while it lasted, shucks, another chorizo time deal, oh well, back to the drawing board adios
Juan read in another a paper the deal has been approved for hidalgo county to get the medical school, today check it out el arroz ya esta cooked my friend. chuy hinojosa and hidalgo county won the coin toss on this one, oh well.
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