To the Editor:
Wow, what a shocker. Cameron county commissioners voted to give Nextdecade, (L.N.G.; Rio Grand Liquid Natural Gas), $373 million taxpayer money to help build, maintain and profit from their proposed gigantic facility, (an awarded tax writeoff does just that). It sure is easy to spend tax money.
Are these four advocate four, (one no vote) commissioners so naive as to not understand that a corporation such as LNG, for five or more years, would have had their scouts combing all of this country to find the ideal location to build their new facility? Why didn’t these commissioners understand that LNG had previously decided that this ship canal location is the absolute best choice in the U.S.A. and had spent years and millions of dollars on pre-construction planning and engineering?
Now, as for Cameron County, there was no necessity for gift negotiations.
Be reminded, that $373 million dollars will draw no corporate interest or dividends for county recovery of money spent to build LNG to top it off, the commissioners traded the corporation’s promise to spend $10 million for community
services for a $373 million county donation.
What are community services? Over what time line and at what individual amounts?
Who legislates the proportions? Also, who currently owns the ground surface that will accommodate this facility is it county land or private ownership paying current taxes Furthermore, if all federal and state environmental rules and regulations are met, LNG will build their facility with or without the $373 million in taxpayer’s money.
This corporation will reap benefits, as others have after building, from the myriad infrastructure advantages provided by the millions of workers and tax payers of this community since its canonization.
May I present a few of the many advantages that would benefit LNG after construction.
* Open land area originally designated for an industrial park that may in the future a higher total county tax return: being somewhat remote from populated areas.
* A warm climate that does not hinder production and maintenance workers.
* Low wages, far lower than other port cities: available labor although it’s not known how many imported.
* Low cost energy either from commercial or in plant wind turbines.
* Pre determined market following other production: convenient natural gas delivery from a nearby pipeline.
*Major land transportation over newly constructed highways.
* State beneficial infrastructure fully paid for by previous tax payers and laborers that will allow LNG to locate here.
* Very beneficial waterway capable of transporting their giant tanker ships where periodic dredging is provided by the federal government.
Were there any non reported threats from LNG stating that they positively would not locate here lacking a tax write off?
Let’s not talk about the popular prose of creating jobs or tons of money for our local government, it is a fact that LNG will be here, providing those benefits for our local well being even without those threats presented to our commissioners.
It seems to me that our new arrival owes even a small amount of pay back for being allowed to locate here.
Jack Stevic
Harlingen
