Odie Arambula laid out today the details of the proposed Municipal Management District which will include much of the historical part of town. The Texas Legislature must okay the plan. City council, along with its consultant out of Houston, Hawes Hill Calderon, sent out notices to the Laredo business community to keep them in the loop. It would be interesting to know how they took it, especially this passage:
The District will have the power to levy ad valorem taxes and to impose and levy assessments on property within its boundaries...
Read the rest of the notice below. (Submitted by a reader)
And there's a map to give you a visual idea of where the "assessments" will be levied.
As I understand it, a municipal management district is established to provide for economic development. But benefits could extend beyond the boundaries of the area. This is how Councilman Alex Perez puts it:
This is part of the inner city blight reinvestment initiative. This tool along with others like the Neighborhood Empowerment Zones (NEZ), tax increment refinancing zones (TIRZ) and other economic tools are being implemented to address our inner city blight. Districts and areas include the Heights, Azteca, downtown, San Bernardo, Chihuahua and Guadalupe. Boundary maps are available.
These tools have been used with great success in over 60 cities. Before and after pictures are incredible. We have hired a consultant with district 8, 3, and the Streets of Laredo putting a third of the $150,000 consultant fee.
Mr. Perez's district includes the Heights neighborhood, Guadalupe, and Chihuahua streets. The others he mentioned are jurisdiction of Councilwoman Cindy Liendo-Espinoza. She told me that not all business owners are happy with the idea of a municipal management district. However, once they learn about the benefits of the plan, they'll be more open to it, she added. As far as new taxes are concerned....
They will pay an assessment that will go back to improvements. (Only in that area)
A long, long time ago when one Gene Belmares had everybody's ear, talk was all about converting the sports venue tax into a b4 model to spur economic development. I'm not sure if this new MMD idea is a way of going forward since the b4 didn't go anywhere. What I think is certain is that people will want to see results fast if they're going to be shelling out more money.
26 comments:
Another reason to move my business to mcallen Tx. Ahhh, this city seems to just not understand.
Another study destined for the "study graveyard" at city hall.
If we had all the money back we spent on studies that were not acted on, we could probably build a new downtown
This plan looks like it's going full steam ahead. I'm not sure if the people of Laredo will have any say about its implementation at the ballot box.
They should learn that they need to involve the residents themselves in their planning. This councilwoman keeps ignoring that and can't seem to handle the bigger projects. Working with Laredo Main Street group isn't enough. They do not represent or speak for the average resident in the area.
I agree with Tom. This will go nowhere.
The people in the highlighted area LIKE the armpit the area has become.
For an effective revitalization downtown... WE NEED LOTS OF FREE PARKING. How hard was that???
I'm wondering if the reason some business owners are leery is because they're proposing a specific tax but just a generalized set of benefits. "Jane Business owner" must know exactly how any increase in her taxes would DIRECTLY benefit her before she can get behind it. Business owners already pay more than enough "good for society" taxes, anything more must be tied to direct benefits for them. I've seen this type of specificity from Councilman Perez in other projects he's championed, so let's hope he does the same here.
the $ will be used to finance projects "WITHIN AND OUTSIDE THE DISTRICT"
In the "United States" it is called extortion. In Mexico, simply put, it is "la mordida". In Laredo it is known as "MMD"
This article makes me wonders...how many of the peoples who will be affected by this actions can even read and understands this article. :)
The layout of the district -- branching out towards Arkansas Ave., and including most of San Bernardo -- is weird. It looks like an MMD with tentacles.
Oh, and new rule: we can't mention parking ever again when talking about downtown. It's there, but it's blightful, to borrow a term from Mr. Perez.
que?
Can anyone explain what a "b4 plan" is, briefly? Thanks in advance.
Keyrose, is MMD short for a mamada?
Les Norton needs to pay higher taxes because he gets lots of extra city services for free.
I don't think the people put in charge of this are equipped for the mission.They should stick with having the city employees hold events in their honor.Complete with a big ol cheesy banner with the name and or picture of the councilmember,and ofcourse handing out free hotdogs.
edinburg is laughing at us.....
It is interesting that Corpus, Waco, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, just to name a few all have management districts or public improvement districts and many incentives to encourage investment. No need to wonder anymore how other cities have managed to pull themselves out of the downward spiral of inner-city blight. Laredo needs to get it's act together and implement these tools as soon as possible. There are property owners who want this.
There are property owners who want this. ??????? Yes i am sure there are, but unfortunatly they are not the ones going to be taxed, but will benefit from the tax source.
A consensus must be made amongst commercial property owners after the legislation is passed. A public hearing is to follow. The district board of directors will at that time decide if the MMD is "activated" or not. What is unclear to me after speaking with Calderon is who appoints the directors. They have term lengths, but not term limits. I believe they must be business owners in that area, but who is on the board is at the discretion of whoever's brain child this undertaking is.
What I'm sort of getting at is this thing is nowhere near happening any time soon. The whole process will probably reach fruition this time next year, if it flies.
who is this Calderon you speak of?
Ooooooohhhh. Public hearing. Council doesn't react well to hearing from the public. And it only takes a couple of council members to convince the rest of the panel of anything.
Who is introducing this legislation. And as Mikaela says, who appoints the initial BOD. The act doesn't make it clear.
HOW far north on San Bernardo does this go ?
They absolutely will get to vote on it!
The committee consists of property and business owners impacted by this plan.
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