BY THE NUMBERS: TONY, RICK AND JESSICA

By Juan Montoya
Forget about their personalities.
City of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez is an autocratic despot who cloaks himself in a mantle of Catholic righteousness.
District 1 Commissioner Rick Longoria paints himself as a victimized, benevolent, and sanctimonious leader of "his people" come election time.
District 2 Commissioner Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa also plays the victim (a pregnant one to boot) who – between fisticuffs with her old man and Facebook cameos – has found time to move mountains to better the lives of her beloved constituents.
These are the numbers that these three – and the others not running for office this year – have compiled as their record  of service.
Since November 2011, they have voted to increase electric rates by 41 percent, water rates by 25 percent, and waste water by 11 percent. They also approved the Tenaska power plant project which will burden the PUB ratepayers with a $325 million debt, which, according to Fitch, the PUB's bond rating services, forced them to downgrade of the utility's bonds to "negative" citing "ratepayer fatigue."
In that same period, they have voted to issue $30 million in Certificates of Obligations outside of the city budget process to be paid by property taxes and landfill fees. See graphic.

The latest $9.5 million issuance of COs was this April when the agenda item read:

6. Consideration and ACTION on Ordinance 2015-1599, to authorize the issuance, sale and delivery of approximately $9,500,000.00 in aggregate principal amount of “City of Brownsville, Texas Combination Tax and Revenue Certificates of Obligation, Series 2015”; securing the payment thereof by authorizing the Levy of an annual Ad Valorem Tax and a pledge of certain surplus revenues of the City’s Municipal Landfill System; and approving and authorizing the execution of a paying agent/registrar agreement, a purchase contract, an official statement and all other instruments and procedures related thereto. (Pete Gonzalez – Deputy City Manager), they once again dipped into future property tax income and increased landfill costs to make ends meet.

This latest $9.5 million brought the total of COs issued without taxpayer approval in the last three years to more than $30 million.

When they couldn't make ends meet with those additional millions, they again go to the PUB ratepayer well and make "cash transfer" averaging about $7.5 million per year, plus an additional $2 and "prestamito" from the utility in 2011. All told, in addition to the extra $30 million in COs outside the annual city budget, they also go to the PUB for free utilities for the municipal facilities to the tune of $4.5 million yearly.
It all comes out of the same pocket – yours.





Do the math.
In other words, these politicians have never lived within their budget.
In the last four years, they have had to go to $30 million non-voter approved COs, have tapped PUB rate payers for additional cash transfers of about $30 million, and have increased utility rates by millions to cover their overspending.
Enough is enough. In this city election, vote for someone else.