GENEROUS ROSE: KOPERNIK SHORE FOLKS MOVE ON OUT

"Unlike most of their neighbors, Terry and Bonnie Heaton, originally from Michigan, live year-round in the unincorporated hamlet with about 35 houses near Boca Chica Beach. They’ve lived there 18 years. During the winter when the neighborhood fills up, it’s a real community where everyone helps each other, Terry said." Brownsville Herald

"Of course, a home we've lived in for many years is priceless, but I hope that Musk's very generous offer will lessen the impact for these resident so they and our region have a win-win situation." City Commissioner At-Large "B" Rose Gowen

By Juan Montoya


City of Brownsville Commissioner At-Large "B" Rose Gowen knows about generous.

Unlike Kopernik Shore resident Terry and Bonnie Heaton who have paid their Cameron County,  Point Isabel School District, Brownsville Navigation District and Texas Southmost College taxes for the past 18 years on their home adjacent to billionaire Elon Musk SpaceX, Gowen has not.

She accomplished that through a 100 percent tax exemption based on the historical designation of her home on 155 Calle Anacua in Brownsville's posh Rio Viejo Subdivision appraised at a value of $368,491 in 2018.


In fact, since 2017, the year she was reelected to office, she has paid zero taxes to any of the above-named governmental entities and districts.

The 100 percent exemption on her home means she pays no taxes to the City of Brownsville, Brownsville Navigation District, Cameron County, and Texas Southmost College. She, like the Heatons and all other property owners, have to pay taxes to the South Texas ISD.

But while the Heatons pay taxes to the PISD at the appraised value of their home, Gowen's historical exemption caps her taxes at$3,921 on a taxable value of $334,992, or 56.94 percent after their homestead exemption that reduces the taxable value to $158,684.


Gowen wanted – and the Texas Historical Commission has approved – a historical plaque for...her home.

Was it built in the 1800s? The early 1900s perhaps? Maybe at the turn of the Century?

No, it was actually built – although not by her or her family – in 1961. Since the plaques are limited to structures with historical significance that are more than 50 years old, this one – already on the National Registry in the category of "ethnic heritage" for historical sites – barely squeaked through with 58 years. When the plaque was granted it was 56.

And what is the historical significance of the Garcia House? According to the 26-page narrative accompanying the National Registry application, it was the single-family domestic dwelling of Estela Cueto and Martín Enrique García, and is of Southern Colonial style domestic architecture.

Of course, this can be said of a whole lot of homes in Brownsville, and in fact, there are many of much older than this one. But the narrative relies on the house's "Ethnic Heritage" qualities. It states that it meets that criteria because it demonstrates how the South Texas cattle rancher and Brownsville civic leader and businessman, Martín E. García, and his wife, Estela Cueto García, contributed to the perpetuation of a social identity through domestic architecture that affiliated them with other elite South Texas ranching families, several of whom were also of Mexican descent.

But that's not all. The houses' association with the Mexican-American ranching "elite" makes it a noteworthy example of Brownsville homes where the Good People lived. In fact, some of the artifacts in the house, the narrative continues, came from the homes of the likes of Frank Yturria and other notables here.

The García House incorporates material salvaged from the house that M. E. García’s maternal grandparents, Felicitas Treviño-Domínguez and Francisco Yturria-Navarro, built in Brownsville about 1854, the narrative states.

There's more.

"Especially associated with this period was the construction of houses for the Valley’s Anglo-American elite, often employing Regional American house types, such as the California Monterrey suburban house type, to continue to suggest through architecture a connection to the border’s Hispanic heritage."

In other words, the home deserves a historical plaque because Good People live there and Good People still live there today. Well, she is a Zavaletta (with two Ts or one?, we forget) after all.
It's funny how these folks feel like they are entitled to be treated like the Anglo-American "elite" and expect that the taxes of the "little" people be at their disposal.

In fact, this penchant for listing their properties as historical extends to the Harry and Reba McNair residence on 39 Sunset Drive which is listed at an appraised value of $350,828 and also was 100 percent exempt from city, BND, TSC, or Cameron County taxes.

And the McNair family did not pay city, BND, TSC, or Cameron County taxes on their three warehouse buildings on E. Fronton with an aggregate appraised value of $441,871, unlike their neighbors who did.

In fact, they were able to finagle getting a city commission vote to change the historical name of El Fronton Street to the McNair Family Drive.

And Rose, a physician who wants everyone else who do pay their share of property taxes to also eat well and ride bicycles to keep them healthy and on the tax rolls.

Toward that end she has steered millions in city property and sales taxes to build hike-and-bike trails, finance cyclobias through overtime pay for city staff and police for security and shuts down the inner city to have people ride their bicycles for a few hours. 

Why not? It doesn't cost her a penny. The taxpayers be damned! Let them eat gorditas!