RAYMONDVILLE — City officials are braced for budget cuts that could include layoffs.

Walmart’s decision to close Raymondville’s store will cut off one of the city’s biggest sources of sales tax revenue.

But officials have not determined the amount of tax revenue the store generates.

“There are going to have to be some cuts somewhere,” City Commissioner Clifton Smith said yesterday.

Mayor Gilbert Gonzales said officials do not know if cuts in sales tax revenue could force employee layoffs.

“I’m praying not,” Gonzales said. “It all depends on how it’s going to impact.”

Last year, commissioners cut deep into their budget after the closure of the 3,000-bed Willacy County Correctional Center slashed about $600,000 in water sales.

“We already pretty much cut to the brim,” Gonzales said of last year’s budget cuts.

Smith said officials may consider budget cuts in such areas as equipment purchases.

But Gonzales said officials already have delayed equipment purchases.

“I don’t know how much room we’ve got,” Gonzales said.

He said officials will not know the amount of sales tax revenue the store generates until the state Comptroller’s Office releases the city’s monthly sales tax collection reflecting the loss of Walmart’s sales tax dollars.

But more than 10 years ago, officials projected the store’s sales tax revenue.

When Walmart opened its Supercenter here in 2005, officials projected the store would generate about $400,000 in annual sales tax revenue.

When the Supercenter opened, Walmart closed its small store here that banked about $140,000 in annual sales tax income.

A history of the city’s sales tax collection shows jumps in sales tax revenue from 2004, 2005 and 2006.

In 2004, the city’s sales tax collection stood at $892,966.

When Walmart’s Supercenter opened in 2005, the city collected $958,831 in sales tax revenue.

By 2006, the city’s sales tax collection had climbed to $1.1 million.

Last year, the city collected $1.4 million in sales tax revenue.

Last week, Walmart announced it would close Raymondville’s store Jan. 29, laying off about 110 employees.

Gonzalez said about 55 employees work full-time.

The world’s largest retailer announced the closing of 269 of its least profitable stores in the United States and Latin America, including a Brownsville store on Padre Island Highway.

News of the Raymondville store’s closing came nearly a year after the Willacy County Correctional Center shut down, laying off 400 employees.

The prison’s closure plunged Willacy County into a financial crisis, slashing a third of the county’s $8.1 million general fund budget. As county commissioners tried to offset a monthly $220,000 shortfall, budget cuts eliminated about 25 jobs, forcing 16 layoffs.

RAYMONDVILLE — City officials are braced for budget cuts that could include layoffs.

Walmart’s decision to close Raymondville’s store will cut off one of the city’s biggest sources of sales tax revenue.

But officials have not determined the amount of tax revenue the store generates.

“There are going to have to be some cuts somewhere,” City Commissioner Clifton Smith said yesterday.

Mayor Gilbert Gonzales said officials do not know if cuts in sales tax revenue could force employee layoffs.

“I’m praying not,” Gonzales said. “It all depends on how it’s going to impact.”

Last year, commissioners cut deep into their budget after the closure of the 3,000-bed WillacyCountyCorrectionalCenter slashed about $600,000 in water sales.

“We already pretty much cut to the brim,” Gonzales said of last year’s budget cuts.

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HARLINGEN — The Valley Morning Star has a new photographer/reporter.

Rick Kelley, 62, joined the staff yesterday. He has had a broad career in journalism, serving in editing, reporting and management positions in both newspapers and television.

“These are exciting times to be in the newspaper business, and especially so here in the Valley,” Kelley said. “We’ve added so much more for our print readers and our digital content readers.

“But in the end, news is still all about writing compelling stories and taking top-notch photos, and that hasn’t changed at all,” Kelley added.

His most recent positions, as editor of The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va., and as executive editor of The Macomb Daily in Michigan, saw him lead those newsrooms as they added digital newsgathering to their daily coverage.

Valley Morning Star Editor Lisa Seiser is thrilled to have a journalist of Kelley’s quality, experience and knowledge join the staff.

“Rick brings a high level of understanding to the newsroom here in Harlingen and we are pleased to have him join our staff,” Seiser said. “He brings his quality writing style, editing capabilities and ability with a camera to the newsroom. The addition of Kelley will allow us to produce more content for our print and online readers. I also expect him to provide some additional leadership when it comes to making our newsroom more digitally focused.”

You can contact Kelley at [email protected] or at 956-430-6203.

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HARLINGEN — Tax revenue will be used to help fund a $14 million project to build a convention center.

City commissioners met Monday with the Tax Increment Financing Reinvestment Zone Board to make the project eligible for tax revenue aimed at economic development.

As part of an agreement, the city will fund construction of the 43,000-square-foot convention facility at the fast-growing HarlingenHeights shopping district anchored by Bass Pro Shops.

The agreement calls for San Antonio-based developer BC Lynd Hospitality, with Weslaco developer Ezequiel Reyna, to build a 150-room hotel next to the convention center.

In 2006, the city created three zones from which to generate tax revenue earmarked for economic development.

This year, officials project the three zones will generate a total of $121,000, City Manager Dan Serna said yesterday.

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SAN BENITO — How long is this going to last? Are you going to stay for a while? We want stability.

In Superintendent Dr. Adrian Vega’s short time here, he already has been approached with these questions regarding his position.

The questions, he said, have come from district staff, teachers and parents.

He is the seventh superintendent to hold the office in the past three years, so those thoughts he said, are understandable.

After the quick departure of former Superintendent Marc Puig after only six months, the district and community as a whole demand and need stability.

During his welcome address to staff, teachers and administrators yesterday, Vega assured them stability is what they will get.

The school board hired Vega as Puig’s replacement in November.

Before beginning his new position as head of the district, Vega was deputy superintendent for Teaching & Learning at the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona.

Vega, who originally is from Texas, will be paid an annual salary of $155,000, which is $15,000 more than his predecessor, Puig.

In a gymnasium at Veterans Memorial High School filled with hundreds, Vega listed his three main guiding principles, “the good stuff,” that according to him are core principles he thinks about daily.

H “All kids deserve the good stuff regardless of zip code,” he said.

H “All parents deserve to send their kids to good schools that provide the good stuff.”

H “All employees deserve to work for an organization that provides the good stuff.”

There are two important items on Vega’s to-do list that will lead up to his intended five-year strategic plan.

“I would like to conduct a district-wide efficiency audit, taking a look at operations,” Vega said.

“Does the district operate efficiently? I would also like to conduct a curriculum audit in the spring.”

A curriculum audit would look at the teaching and learning side of things.

“It’s just to get a clear picture,” he said.

For example, he said, “If I am a classroom teacher, it would be wise to assess my kids on the first day of school to know where they are at and then go from there.”

“I’m not going to be able to meet the needs of the district if I don’t know what is working or where there are gaps,” Vega said.

After that, he said he can bring an objective perspective and dive into a five-year strategic plan to move the district forward.

It’s too early to tell what that plan will entail.

“If the idea is to truly prepare our kids for their lives, and its 2016, and the world keeps changing, we need to make sure we are truly preparing them for that.”

Dan Sanchez, the holdover Pct. 4 commissioner and candidate for county judge, feels he has done his best to adhere to electoral procedures.

But the photos on Sanchez’s Facebook page show the commissioner with his brother David, judge of the 444th state District Court, who is wearing a “Dan Sanchez for County Judge” shirt.

And the large billboard sign just outside of San Benito says the same thing, but the word “for” may not be easy to notice.

But how do these elements stand up against Texas electoral codes?

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The Texas Code of Judicial Conduct Canon 5 states: “a judge or judicial candidate shall not authorize the public use of his or her name endorsing another candidate for any public office, except that either may indicate support for a political party.”

According to Election Code Title 15 Chapter 255.006, “a person commits an offense if the person knowingly represents in a campaign communication that a candidate holds a public office that the candidate does not hold at the time the representation is made.”

Chapter 255.006 further specifies that false representation includes when “the political advertising or campaign communication states the public office sought but does not include the word ‘for’ in a type size that is at least one-half the type size used for the name of the office to clarify that the candidate does not hold that office.”

Before the election began, however, David Sanchez called the executive director of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Seana Willing, specifically asking if he could wear a shirt supporting Sanchez, Dan Sanchez said.

Willing pointed David Sanchez to a Supreme Court case ruling in which Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht was involved in, Dan Sanchez said.

“Based on his conversation with her, Hecht had a complaint filed on him for doing a similar thing, supporting a candidate, and through the process appealed it, where they made a finding that the first amendment trumped the conduct of judicial canons,” Dan Sanchez said.

Hecht had publically expressed his support for Harriet Miers, a former White House counsel to ex-president George W. Bush, when she had received a nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Judicial Conduct Commission ruled that by voicing support for Miers’ nomination, Hecht misused his office. Hecht challenged the ruling and the reprimand was dismissed after a Special Review Court agreed with him.

Willing said the judicial commission does offer itself as a resource to judges if they have ethical concerns or questions, and when considering if a judge has violated judicial code, the commission has to take into account free speech rights.

“Certainly when it comes to political activities, you have to look at whether or not the judge’s free speech rights outweigh the states’ interest in regulating conduct to ensure a fair and impartial judiciary,” Willing said.

Dan Sanchez said he was unaware of whether his signage’s font type was potentially smaller than it should be. Nobody had approached him about it, he said.

“With the person I hire for my campaign and signage and everything, I expect that they’re complying with the law. I’ll have them check it. I wasn’t aware (that anything might be wrong). If it’s not correct, we’ll fix it, not a problem,” Sanchez said.

The billboard sign outside San Benito was not designed by the Sanchez campaign. It was done by friends of Sanchez that wished to help him on the campaign, he said.

Commissioner Sanchez was also wearing a campaign badge during the commission meeting held Jan. 12.

“Normally, I’d take it off. I got in a little late, and didn’t realize I still had it on. That was unintentional and accidental. I always try to take it off before I go in,” the commissioner said.

Dan Sanchez announced his run at a veteran’s celebration he and his brother, David, put together in front of the Cameron County Courthouse on Nov. 10.

Pct. 2 Commissioner Alex Dominguez said the event was not approved beforehand by the commissioners’ court.

“The commissioners’ court never approved it. It would’ve been great for the county to put on an event with everyone present, but in my opinion, that was more of a campaign stunt,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez did not consider the event to be an abuse of official capacity, which as defined by penal code title 8 chapter 39.02 is when a public servant “misuses government property, services, personnel, or any other thing of value belonging to the government.”

But he did say it was in “poor taste.”

“I think better judgment could have been taken,” he said.

However, Sanchez is not the first to announce in front of the courthouse, said Pct. 3 Commissioner David A. Garza.

“It’s a very common occurrence. Many have done that in front of the courthouse, and that’s me speaking from my 15 years in county government and previous 12 in school elections,” Garza said. “It’s a public property at the end of the day. People use different backdrops to announce their candidacies.”

Opinions are a dime a dozen, Garza added.

“I try to do things my way, others do it their way. Whether it’s right or wrong or indifferent, it’s a matter of what opinions a person has on the issue. Many people will say it’s right, many will say it’s wrong, but you make a decision and live with that,” Garza said.

County Judge Pete Sepulveda Jr. said the announcement walked a fine line on whether it was appropriate. But he did not consider it to be an official announcement.

HARLINGEN — After serving as a Harlingen school district trustee for 15 years, Board Vice President Verna Young is stepping down to care for her health.

“We are very grateful for her service. She has been fully committed to the education of all students as an educator and as a trustee,” Superintendent Art Cavazos said yesterday.

“She’s a champion for HCISD students, families and staff. She will be greatly missed but we are confident she will stay up to date with our transformation.”

Young’s Place 7 seat on the school board is one of two up for election on May 7.

Young, 84, became a school board member in May 2001 after she retired as principal of Harlingen High School.

Her career in education spanned 60 years.

RAYMONDVILLE — Willacy County’s proposed $25 million project to build a sports and entertainment center is drawing criticism amid the area’s growing economic crisis.

After years of planning, county commissioners last week accepted a master plan that calls for the phased development of the Willacy County Natural Resource and Heritage Center.

The complex is planned for 100 acres of county-owned land off State Highway 186 near Interstate 69.

The project would be funded through grant money, said Sally Velasquez, the county’s consultant.

But some residents question whether the project will ever materialize.

Yesterday, the project drew criticism from residents concerned about spending amid an economic crisis that stems from last year’s closure of the Willacy County Correctional Center, which slashed a third of the county’s $8.1 million budget.

Last week, the fiscal crisis deepened after Walmart announced the closure of Raymondville’s store, which employs about 110 workers.

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RAYMONDVILLE — Residents of the area aren’t happy and some have vowed to do something about it.

A petition drive has been launched requesting Walmart to reconsider plans to close its Raymondville store.

The Facebook petition had collected 1,191 signatures as of 6 p.m. yesterday.

Organizers say the petition will go to Walmart President Doug McMillon.

Signatures were still being collected last night.

The petition says the store’s closure would pose a “burden” for residents within a 25-mile radius.

“Think about your customers; think about your committed employees,” the petition states. “As many communities surrounding the greater Raymondville area, we depend on this store. Closing this store will bring (a) burden to many people as many just can’t afford the 30- to 40-minute drive to the next city that has multiple Walmarts.”

But Mayor Gilbert Gonzales said Walmart executives have told city officials they will not reconsider the store’s closure.

Last week, the world’s largest retailer announced the closing of 269 of its least profitable stores in the United States and Latin America, including a Brownsville store on Padre Island Highway.

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