HARLINGEN — Area leaders are meeting with state legislators on Wednesday to request their help in funding their priorities during the upcoming legislative session.
Local officials are planning to discuss the area’s needs and concerns with District 39 State Rep. Armando Martinez, District 38 State Rep. Erin Gamez, District 27 Sen.-elect Morgan LaMantia and District 37 State Rep.-elect Janie Lopez at the event held by the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce.
Among the entities expected to present their priorities are the city of Harlingen, Valley International Airport, the Harlingen Waterworks System, the Harlingen school district, the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, the Port of Harlingen, Valley Baptist Medical Center and Harlingen Medical Center.
The event set for 5:30 p.m. at the chamber is open to the public.
“I’m going to get everyone involved so the legislators will see we’re speaking with one voice on the issues and needs of Harlingen and the surrounding cities,” Javier De Leon, the chamber’s president and chief executive officer, said Tuesday.
Legislators are set to “share what their priorities are going to be and their areas of interest and it’s going to allow us to share our issues and needs and our priorities,” he said. “They will plant the seed so when we visit them in Austin we’ll already have started a dialogue.”
Lawmakers’ priorities
During the legislative session, lawmakers will determine how they plan to earmark parts of a $27 billion surplus, Gamez said during an interview.
“I’m so excited in coming together with a wish list,” she said. “Having a plan of action is the most important thing.”
In her agenda, she said she is planning to push to revamp the area’s workforce, focusing on technology training.
“We have a lot of students who want technical training and jobs at home,” she said.
This year, lawmakers are pushing to boost teachers’ salaries, Gamez said.
“It’s a huge issue,” she said. “Teachers are really depending on this. Their quality of life is depending on that.”
Meanwhile, she plans to push to upgrade the state’s electric grid to prevent collapses such the February 2019 disaster, Gamez said.
“We really need to focus on reinforcing our infrastructure, roads and bridges,” she said.
Regional approach
For weeks, Mayor Norma Sepulveda, commissioners and city officials have been meeting with lobbyists Terral Smith and William Yarnell to discuss the city’s biggest priorities including water, sewer and drainage projects.
“We want to work together as a region so we can ask with one voice,” Sepulveda said.
This year, the state’s pot includes federal and state money aimed at recovering from the coronavirus pandemic’s economic slowdown, she said.
“There’s still lots of funding for different infrastructure,” she said.
‘Once-in-a-generation opportunity’
On Tuesday, Commissioner Daniel Lopez described the legislative session as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to seek state dollars to reinvest in our city,” with priorities including drainage and broadband projects.
“Harlingen’s priority will be using this legislative session to gain access to Texas’ $27 billion budgetary surplus to fund infrastructure and economic development projects,” he stated. “This ranges from an updated drainage system that will be able to handle the bigger and more frequent storms we are seeing, to building out a fiber-optic network throughout Harlingen, to building out the city’s industrial sector to better position ourselves to grow and recruit businesses that offer higher wages and better benefits to our constituents.”
“We would like to convey to the Texas Legislature that it needs to utilize the surplus dollars to solidify Texas’ economic stronghold for both the immediate future and into the next century,” he stated. “Taking a historical perspective, four of the top 10 countries with the largest GDPs — China, Japan, India and South Korea — in the last century all made significant investments in their infrastructure and industrial sectors, and it has paid off with dividends. In this vein, we must leverage the surplus in ways that will grow our investments for the benefit of future Harlingen residents, especially if we hope to see major economic gains in the years and decades to come.”
“This session is important because of its potential impact,” he stated. “Thus, we are working hand-in-hand with our newly elected representatives and senator to put our vision of a greater Harlingen at the forefront of the agenda. COVID-19 reaffirmed the need to shorten and strengthen our supply chains, which will allow Harlingen, because of its advantages of an airport, seaport, railway, highways and international bridge, to bolster its position as a major economic player, both within and outside of the state. My personal goal is for every state representative and state senator to know where Harlingen is, why the city is important for Texas’ continued ascent and for them to show their support for a greater Harlingen by directing state dollars into the Capital City.”
Water, sewer projects topping wish list
At City Hall, WaterWorks’ wish list is topping the city’s priorities with projects including a sewer plant, City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez said.
“It’s grant funding that’s going to make the biggest impact for us,” WaterWorks General Manager Tim Skoglund said. “The projects we have are essential to serve the city in the future and correct any problems we have.”
Last month in Kansas City, presenters at the National League of Cities conference said $600 billion is available to fund water and sewer projects, City Commissioner Michael Mezmar said, noting priorities include helping fund WaterWorks’ proposed $180 million master plan.
In District 4, Commissioner Frank Morales is calling for WaterWorks upgrades to stop sewage from backing up in residents’ homes.
“The problem that my district has are back-water issues,” he told commissioners during a Dec. 7 meeting. “When it rains too much, there are areas in my district that overflow — water comes back and there have been issues like that on the street.”
The city’s biggest priorities include about $40 million in drainage projects, Gonzalez said.
Harlingen school district
At the Harlingen school district, officials’ priorities include supporting local control of finances, pushing for an “adequate and equitable school finance system” raising per-pupil funding to the natural average, opposing the expansion of publicly funded charter schools, calling for more special education funding, pushing to repeal the 3-1 student-teacher ratio and opposing the diverting of public funding through the use vouchers and tax credits.
San Benito
In San Benito, the city’s top priorities include a library building, a public safety training center, a fire station, a resaca dredging project, a master drainage study, detention pond construction and a swimming pool, along with baseball, football and soccer fields plus water, sewer and street upgrades, city spokesman David Favila stated.
