Brownsville commissioner speaks to defeat of municipal district

A proposal to replace Brownsville’s two existing economic development organizations (EDOs) with a single Municipal Development District (MDD) might have had a better change of success if city officials had done a better job of communicating to voters about it.

That’s according to District 3 City Commissioner Roy De los Santos, who cited a “lack of education and outreach and probably, even more so, engagement with the voters.”

The Greater Brownsville MDD would have come into being, and the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation dissolved, if voters in the May 4 special election had approved Proposition A allowing for creation of the district, which they did not.

Creation of the district was also contingent on voter approval of Proposition B dissolving BCIC and GBIC, each funded by a quarter-cent sales and use tax. Voters approved Proposition B, though it had no effect since Proposition A was defeated and GBIC and BCIC still exist. BCIC is a “Type B” organization, meaning its focus should be primarily on quality-of-life projects, while GBIC’s “Type A” designation means it concentrates primarily on economic development.

De los Santos and other proponents argued before the election that a single MDD made more sense than maintaining two separate economic arms. Economic development and quality-of-life projects both would have been under the purview of the new, single entity.

Further, the MDD would have been able to collect sales tax revenue from the city’s extra-territorial jurisdictional (ETJ) areas beyond city limit boundaries (as well as within city limits), and also spend that money on quality-of-life and economic development projects in those ETJ areas. BCIC and GBIC can pursue projects only within city limits.

“We should have had town halls to sit down with the community and talk to them about what questions they have, what type of projects they’d like to see come out of something like an MDD, and make sure we have a good comprehensive community plan before it was on the ballot,” De los Santos said.

GBIC’s work — luring tenants to the city’s business parks for instance — is low profile compared to some BCIC’s projects. At a recent city commission meeting, commissioners ratified recommendations from BCIC for funding for several quality-of-life projects, including some for special needs children, involving total funding requests of $2.4 million.

Those projects include Down by the Border, an “adapted sports league” for special needs kids and an expansion of therapy services for the Moody Clinic’s special needs patients. Other projects include phase two of an outdoor learning garden and an Amelia Earhart Adventure Climber exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Brownsville, and “Gather at the Gardens,” an initiative of the Brownsville Wellness Coalition to cultivate healthy food and lifestyles by promoting urban farming and community gardens.

Acknowledging that BCIC projects have leaned increasingly toward economic economic development at the expense of quality-of-life in recent years, city commissioners in April passed a resolution requiring at least 50% of BCIC funding from sales and use tax go to quality-of-life projects.

De los Santos noted that this still leaves 75% of funding for GBIC and BCIC combined going to economic development projects, although quality-of-life projects can sometimes be viewed through an economic development lens, since they can help convince businesses to locate here. Still, an MDD, with its expanded funding and reach, would have devoted a solid 50% of funding to quality-of-life projects, he said.

It’s possible the city will try again some day with another development district proposal, though it shouldn’t happen before nine to 12 months of education and gathering community input, De los Santos said, adding that the timing also could have been better.

“To have something on a ballot in May, which is right after property tax statements and valuations have come out, there’s typically going to be resentment toward anything that looks like it could influence taxation,” he said.