GBIC GIVES $210K TO UTRGV, MONTERREY, MEXICO, COMPANY

"The Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation has awarded $210,000 to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s office of Workforce and Economic Development to help fund research in virtual reality and artificial intelligence software for Future SQC Software LLC, which plans to commercialize the software for use in manufacturing." Steve Clark, Brownsville Herald

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Well, here we go again.

Remember back in February 2011 when the seven-member board of the Texas Southmost College was asked to approve an agenda item pushed by former UTB-TSC president Juliet Garcia that would have 

transferred  the community college's real estate, buildings, and all its assets to the oil-and-gas wealthy UT System – some $198 million – but left only the $60 million in bond debt that would grow to some $120 million with interest to be paid over a 20 year period by TSC? 

Only then would the Texas legislature allow the district to "dissolve."

The district barely survived the outrageous giveaway by a 4-3 vote, with Adela Garza, Trey Mendez, Rene Torres and Kiko Rendon (dubbed the Fab Four) nixing the proposal and David Oliveira, Robert Robles and Robert Lozano carrying water for Garcia on the losing end.

Then, in 2017, came former mayor Tony Martinez offering the UT System choice real estate downtown to lure it to move UTRGV to the downtown area. The "offerings" included Lincoln Park, but the people rose up, cooler heads prevailed, and the move came to naught.

In his RFP to the UT System, he listed the cost of the 47-acre park at $959,000. But he was offering it to the UT at a fire-sale price. Martinez also offered them other "incentives." Some of these were as follows:

* Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation - $2,500 to $5,000 for every University job associated with UTB's location downtown

* Brownsville Economic Development Corporation - BEDC will contribute tax revenue from increased sales, mixed beverage, and parking meter taxes to UTB for public realm improvements downtown

*Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation - BCIC will provide funding and/or subsidies for "quality of life" projects, including cultural and athletic amenities in greater Downtown Brownsville

* Brownsville Metropolitan Planning Organization and BCIC - MPO and BCIC will increase bicycle infrastructure, including the extension of city hike and bike trails to better connect the UTB facilities with surrounding downtown neighborhoods and amenities

* Public Utility Board - PUB will provide reduced utility rates for new UTB buildings that are built to LEED accreditation standards

* Brownsville Metro - Brownsville Metro will increase their bus coverage area to better serve UTB's campus and to increase service frequency to UTB campus facilities. That despite the fact that at that time there was no Sunday bus service for local residents.

In it, La Casa Del Nylon and the old Kress Building were depicted as university facilities and (the latter) as a Gold's Gym. UT said thanks, but no thanks. In fact, the Lizka-Galonsky landowners (also of the Casa Del Nylon $2.3 million sale fame. Or us it infamy?) had an additional 39.09 acres they wanted to sell UT at "fair market value." Since when?

 

And now, again, the city  through its GBIC alter ego (the city commission appointed itself as GBIC board members and approve their own actions later) has voted to give University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s office of Workforce and Economic Development the $210,000. 

However worthy or cutting-edge software and technology that might be developed, the truth is that here's the UT System once again trying - and succeeding, apparently - to suck the lifeblood of this community's tax base, this time the GBIC's quarter-cent sales tax revenues. 

And some of that money will be given to SQC Software,  a subsidiary of OneTap, an information services and consulting firm based in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, that began collaborating with UTRGV in 2020 as part of the university’s Global Soft Landing Program. OneTap told the GBIC that if it got the funds it "intends" to move to Brownsville. That doesn't sound like they feel obligated to come, does it? So now the city is subsidizing Mexican companies? 

According to GBIC chairman and city commissioner John Cowen, the $210,000 grant will be used to buy software, virtual reality hardware and possibly $45,000 worth of additive (3D printing) manufacturing equipment. But don't we already have 3D printing brought to South Texas by the Texas A&M University as part of its Engineering Experiment Station (TEES)? And A&M brought these for free through its workforce  program  and didn't ask the COB for a subsidy. Why not URGV?

(Here's a photo of one of the A&M TEES 3D printing technolog made available free of charge.)

GBIC Interim Executive Director and CEO Constanza Miner said the GBIC board opted to fund the project “because it falls in line with our mission of establishing innovation in the workplace, economic development and employment opportunities for residents in our community.”

“At GBIC we practice under the notion that no project is too small or big to support, and we see the potential for exceptional growth through this particular project,” she said.

So why does the City of Brownsville have to give away its tax base to the UT System through this grant? Last time we looked, the projections for 2023 from the Permanent University Fund (PUF) available to UT Regents stands at $ 1,215,780,000 and another $ 1,272, 315 for 2024. 

• Available University Fund Annual Report (See page 4)

And they had to ask for $210,000 from little jodido Brownsville?

Is it just another case of history repeating itself and our economic development entities like the GBIC and elected representatives allowing the fabulously wealthy university to continue leeching off the poorest city in the United States again?

By this time, we thought that we would have known better.