To City Editor, Brownsville Herald
Dear Sir,
Please allow me to respond to the article written by Steve Clark on Tuesday July 18, 2017 concerning the SATA matter.
From my perspective as a Brownsville City Commissioner and a member of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC) board, I feel that the article failed to provide a balanced perspective of our ongoing economic development efforts.
First, let’s talk about economic development and why it is important to the City of Brownsville. The City’s general fund budget is approximately $100 million dollars in round numbers. The general fund balance is approximately 107 million for fiscal year 2017. If we divide that number by the approximately 200,000 residents of the City of Brownsville, we are left with around $500 dollars per person to meet the basic services for our community.
This level of service is considered very low. It is even more concerning when you consider that public
safety (police and fire) take up over 50 percent of the $500 level of service, which leaves the City less than $250 per person to provide for all other of the basic services including planning for our future public safety needs as we continue to grow. (Click on graphic to enlarge)
Additionally, it is desirable to have a majority of the level of service be paid for by our property tax base, rather than sales taxes and other fees, because property taxes represent a more stable and higher quality source of income. In our case, our tax base is relatively low and contributes only about 20 percent of the level of service revenue.
Bottom line is that the tax base and per capita incomes are low because we are largely a pass-through non-traded economy. Public sector, rather than private sector jobs, dominate our economy. Our largest employers are the U.S Government – Homeland Security, Border Patrol and Custom Officers and the Brownsville Independent School District and the and goods produced elsewhere pass through our city without us transforming or adding significant value.
Clearly, transforming our economy to a private sector, investment-driven one that will increase our tax base through industry and increase our per capita incomes is critical to better meeting the needs of our community.
The City’s and GBIC’s mission is to catalyze that transformation by creating a competitive community to attract private sector investment to recruit value added outside firms, expand the capacity of existing local firms who are the backbone of our local economy, and create an entrepreneurial ecosystem conducive to the creation of new local firms.
We continue to work at the City to make our permitting process a one day process. The article raised the issue of workforce development, one of the key competitive elements in a community. However, it should be noted that workforce development gaps are not an issue that is exclusive to Brownsville. It is a concern throughout the U.S. and the developed world.
As manufacturing jobs moved overseas in the past, there's been a loss of manufacturing talent as aging workers have retired and have not been replaced. Those gaps have now become glaring as manufacturing is re-shoring back to North America from Asia and the demand for skilled labor has
increased, as with SATA.
But we have not let the existence of this constraint be an excuse. We are proactively addressing the workforce development gaps in a number of ways. One way we are addressing this is the development of an integrated approach to workforce development in manufacturing that includes a chain of transitions that begins with high school level trainees in our independent school district (BISD), to technical college technicians at Texas Southmost College (TSC) and Texas State Technical College (TSTC), to university engineers and through to postgraduate research and development programs.
At each transition the student/apprentice can enter the workforce with a workforce ready certificate or
can continue their education to the next level. While workforce development is a critical focus for our effort, it is just one of the competitive measures that we are targeting. Our strategic focus is also targeted at other critically important competitive elements including technology, infrastructure (water, energy and transportation), capital availability, leadership, downtown revitalization and quality of life.
Toward the technology and talent end of the spectrum, we just signed a memorandum of understanding with UTRGV to create a manufacturing innovation hub that will incentivize innovation for local manufacturers by providing a ready supply of apprentices from the technician to the doctoral level, as well as product testing and development support.
With respect to capital availability, we are proposing expanding incentives beyond traditional job creation and tax deferments to also include credit enhancements, creating tax re-investment zone and angel investor networks in order to support not only the recruitment of outside firms, but also increase the capacity of local firms and help our local entrepreneurs with the creation of new
startups.
And relative to infrastructure we are working to expand our focus beyond just transportation, to also include; providing value-priced and sustainable supplies of both water and energy resources. We are working towards adding a research center with our local University so Brownsville Public Utilities can be on the forefront on water and energy conservation and management.
We continue to explore renewable energy options to make our cost of services cheaper and more efficient for all our citizens.
Finally, in terms of leadership, we are working with UTRGV to establish a leadership institute to provide training to elected officials and public sector executives on basic public policy and management skills, as well as creating a pipeline of trained future leaders. We also recognize the importance of working closely with our sister city of H. Matamoros to leverage our joint resources toward common goals.
Recently, we completed an Economic development study that has highlighted the opportunities that exist for Brownsville and Matamoros to integrate the NAFTA supply chains into our local manufacturing economy.
And just a few weeks ago, I hosted a meeting in Brownsville with the economic development agencies of the State of Tamaulipas and H. Matamoros to leverage our resources to address our shared competitive gaps including workforce skills.
We believe that the border provides the opportunity to bring together under one roof the best of what Mexico and the U.S. have to offer, all in the best geographic location to meet the needs of the North American market.
We are committed to executing an economic development strategy that will move our region to an investment-driven advanced manufacturing economy that creates a stronger tax base and creates better paying job opportunities for our residents.
And in terms of SATA, we look forward to continue working closely with them not only to meet their workforce development needs, but also to help them capture the incentives and credit enhancement opportunities we've offered in return for them to locate their operations in our industrial park next to the future site of the UTRGV Manufacturing Innovation Hub.
It's a win-win- win situation for our City, our citizens and SATA.
For comments, suggestions or ideas please email me at cesar.deleon@cob.us
From my perspective as a Brownsville City Commissioner and a member of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation (GBIC) board, I feel that the article failed to provide a balanced perspective of our ongoing economic development efforts.First, let’s talk about economic development and why it is important to the City of Brownsville. The City’s general fund budget is approximately $100 million dollars in round numbers. The general fund balance is approximately 107 million for fiscal year 2017. If we divide that number by the approximately 200,000 residents of the City of Brownsville, we are left with around $500 dollars per person to meet the basic services for our community.
This level of service is considered very low. It is even more concerning when you consider that public
safety (police and fire) take up over 50 percent of the $500 level of service, which leaves the City less than $250 per person to provide for all other of the basic services including planning for our future public safety needs as we continue to grow. (Click on graphic to enlarge)
Bottom line is that the tax base and per capita incomes are low because we are largely a pass-through non-traded economy. Public sector, rather than private sector jobs, dominate our economy. Our largest employers are the U.S Government – Homeland Security, Border Patrol and Custom Officers and the Brownsville Independent School District and the and goods produced elsewhere pass through our city without us transforming or adding significant value.
Clearly, transforming our economy to a private sector, investment-driven one that will increase our tax base through industry and increase our per capita incomes is critical to better meeting the needs of our community.
The City’s and GBIC’s mission is to catalyze that transformation by creating a competitive community to attract private sector investment to recruit value added outside firms, expand the capacity of existing local firms who are the backbone of our local economy, and create an entrepreneurial ecosystem conducive to the creation of new local firms.
We continue to work at the City to make our permitting process a one day process. The article raised the issue of workforce development, one of the key competitive elements in a community. However, it should be noted that workforce development gaps are not an issue that is exclusive to Brownsville. It is a concern throughout the U.S. and the developed world.
As manufacturing jobs moved overseas in the past, there's been a loss of manufacturing talent as aging workers have retired and have not been replaced. Those gaps have now become glaring as manufacturing is re-shoring back to North America from Asia and the demand for skilled labor has
increased, as with SATA.
But we have not let the existence of this constraint be an excuse. We are proactively addressing the workforce development gaps in a number of ways. One way we are addressing this is the development of an integrated approach to workforce development in manufacturing that includes a chain of transitions that begins with high school level trainees in our independent school district (BISD), to technical college technicians at Texas Southmost College (TSC) and Texas State Technical College (TSTC), to university engineers and through to postgraduate research and development programs.
At each transition the student/apprentice can enter the workforce with a workforce ready certificate or
can continue their education to the next level. While workforce development is a critical focus for our effort, it is just one of the competitive measures that we are targeting. Our strategic focus is also targeted at other critically important competitive elements including technology, infrastructure (water, energy and transportation), capital availability, leadership, downtown revitalization and quality of life.
Toward the technology and talent end of the spectrum, we just signed a memorandum of understanding with UTRGV to create a manufacturing innovation hub that will incentivize innovation for local manufacturers by providing a ready supply of apprentices from the technician to the doctoral level, as well as product testing and development support.
With respect to capital availability, we are proposing expanding incentives beyond traditional job creation and tax deferments to also include credit enhancements, creating tax re-investment zone and angel investor networks in order to support not only the recruitment of outside firms, but also increase the capacity of local firms and help our local entrepreneurs with the creation of new
startups.
And relative to infrastructure we are working to expand our focus beyond just transportation, to also include; providing value-priced and sustainable supplies of both water and energy resources. We are working towards adding a research center with our local University so Brownsville Public Utilities can be on the forefront on water and energy conservation and management.
We continue to explore renewable energy options to make our cost of services cheaper and more efficient for all our citizens.
Finally, in terms of leadership, we are working with UTRGV to establish a leadership institute to provide training to elected officials and public sector executives on basic public policy and management skills, as well as creating a pipeline of trained future leaders. We also recognize the importance of working closely with our sister city of H. Matamoros to leverage our joint resources toward common goals.
Recently, we completed an Economic development study that has highlighted the opportunities that exist for Brownsville and Matamoros to integrate the NAFTA supply chains into our local manufacturing economy.
We believe that the border provides the opportunity to bring together under one roof the best of what Mexico and the U.S. have to offer, all in the best geographic location to meet the needs of the North American market.
We are committed to executing an economic development strategy that will move our region to an investment-driven advanced manufacturing economy that creates a stronger tax base and creates better paying job opportunities for our residents.
And in terms of SATA, we look forward to continue working closely with them not only to meet their workforce development needs, but also to help them capture the incentives and credit enhancement opportunities we've offered in return for them to locate their operations in our industrial park next to the future site of the UTRGV Manufacturing Innovation Hub.
It's a win-win- win situation for our City, our citizens and SATA.
For comments, suggestions or ideas please email me at cesar.deleon@cob.us
16 comments:
You know what? It sure is terrible that Rene Oliveira and his 33 years in office cannot do what our taxpayer money does with giving a chance to GBIC and BEDC. Unemployment is still double digits and Brownsville is behind McAllen as far as overall sales. No Tenaska no Space X nothing. Eliminate GBIC. BEDC and do not vote for Rene Oliveira or Lucios anymore. Let the Chamber of Commerce go to work . stop being Stuoid
What a bunch of shit
No more Oliveira. He wrecks homes with children with lobbyisst money
Alex Dominguez for State Representative
Commissioner De Leon is one bright lad! I see him moving up to bigger and greater roles in government.
A sincere Thank You, Mr. De Leon.
This is a great synopsis of where our tax dollars go, but what is the city doing to make Brownsville more competitive?? And what is the city doing to make Brownsville more attractive (other than a plethora of bike trails) to outsiders?? Seems like McAllen, Edinburg and Harlingen have prospered, but Brownsville appears to lack not only money, but leadership. We don't need to know that we are poor, we need some leaders that can tell us what is needed and what projects are in the pipeline.....not a bunch of pie charts.
WE NEED A GOOD CLOSER, SOMEONE WHO CAN MAKE ALL THE PIECES FIT IN THE PUZZLE. TOO MANY CHOKE ARTIST GETTING INVOLVED. KEEP US FREE OF THE OLD GUARD WHO ESCORTED FAILURES OF PROJECTS LIKE THE BROWNSVILLE PORT BRIDGE.
EVEN SPACE X IS BEGINNING TO SMELL FISHY.
GOOD TO SEE FRESH MINDS TAKING A POSITIVE LOOK AT THINGS.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK CEASAR.
THANK GOD FOR NEW BLOOD.
WE NEED MORE FRESH RECRUITS LIKE DE LEON.
Mr. de Leon, I know where you are coming from and where you intend to go, but right now your constituents, including me are at a loss for we seem to be on a lost trip to nowhere. We are promised so many things and nothing comes true and yet we get things that no body wants or cares for. Yes it is very disparing to travel up the valley just to go find something exciting to do besides going to the Dollar Tree and HEB, but what else can we do. We do not have a single prestigious affordable restaurant that people flock to because our restaurants leave quicker than it takes them to set up. Look at the wait for those new restaurants to be built at the old Holiday Inn place - so as molasses and nothing yet. The streets are so filthy, pot-holded, paved with patches of caliche, palm trees are all messy, to match the mayor's hair. Cesar, you are a smart young man and nobody needs to tell you what is going on in this city and you are smart enough to explain things to us, but what most people care about it what they are able to see in front of them now. Please pay attention to the old, traditional, Brownsville-born, voters who still think reasonably and I can sure promise you that if you run for mayor next time, we the oldies will vote you in without doubt. We are sick and tired of just getting the run around and no explanation to all the things money is being spent on that are not priorities in our city. What does an All-American City designation give us except spending more money to go sell the concept to those that select us. Who cares? We want to be or all Brownsville City for now. We are ashame to have family and friends come visit especially the appearance of our downtown, so even though your article makes a lot of sense, half of us do not care nor understand where that leads us. Please help Brownsville, Mr. De Leon - se lo pedimos de todo Corazon- haga por nosotros!!!!
SHADDUP CAPTAIN with the Oliveira crapola! You fool! Go beat-off and stop being a fucking pest, you dumbass Catholic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Mayor and Rick longoria are worthless to BROWNSVILLE tax payers Don't let them fool you and question them everytime you see them.There tenure as public servants has been disgraceful.
25 to 35 years of the same same plans hopes and NOW NEED YOU GUYS YOU LEADERS
TO FOR GODS SAKE GET OUT OF THE WAY ! !
STEP 1 - GET RID OF PUB BEING THE ONLY ELECTRIC PROVIDER.
STEP 2 - CHANGE 100 OF THE bisd board/ superintendent and administration.
STEP 3 - clean the streets, fix the streets & 100 % of the city.
STEP 4 - CHANGE THE SENATOR, STATE REPS & CONGRESSMAN & MAYOR & COUNTY
COMMISS GARZA, COMM SOFI, AND THE BOARD AT THE PORT
VOTERS OF BROWNSVILLE WAKE UP
Dumb ass catholic?really you must be a atheist I'm not sorry for you.
You got to be kidding, De Leon is all talk. Look at his record, what has he really done since elected. Grandstanding does not produce anything.
Thanks for censoring my comment Juan.
You're name is dirt to me.
It wasn't profanity filled, and wasn't offensive to anyone. Maybe a little - but not the worst Ive seen here.
More bullshit from our city commission.....
Why try an invent something new, like manufacturing here? We already have $10 billion in merchandise that changes hands in our seaport each year. Problem is, the buyers and sellers are all in Mexico, Houstin, NYC, etc. McAllen area trades that much in fresh produce from Mexico, and most changes hands by local traders. Their profit stays in McAllen. We need to teach international business in our high schools. With emphasis on petroleum technical specifications, as that's Brownsville's biggest cargo. Fresh produce handling and trading is also worthwhile, as that will start moving through our port, sooner or later.
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