The Edinburg City Council has approved amending its current budget to donate $1 million to the UTRGV School of Medicine, and will decide whether the money will be given in one payment or installments.
During the City Council’s Sept. 4 meeting, Mayor Richard Molina opened discussion about the $1 million that will be set aside for the medical school.
“And this is within the budget? You’re just moving around funds?” Place 2 Councilmember Gilbert Enriquez asked.
“Yes, with the exception of the contribution to the university,” Molina answered. “That is, funds are taken from the fund balance.”
Molina verified with Finance Director Ascencion Alonzo that the money will be from the fund balance.
David Torres, Place 4 councilmember, spoke in favor of supporting the medical school.
“We know what the university does is for Edinburg, and what it is, but you are also professionals that work with numbers as we do,” Torres said. “The City of Edinburg is in a tough situation, where we’re trying to maximize our funds. I’m committed, I speak for myself, to do my best, to always support the university, but as budgets come forward, it may be a little tougher, but when we get there, we’ll deal with that.”
Molina said he spoke with Veronica Gonzales, UTRGV’s vice president for Governmental and Community Relations, about the funding.
“During the course of the year, I was hoping to give the entire payment, so that they add up to a million dollars instead of them waiting and waiting …,” he said. “We set the money aside, you know quarterly, four-pay, or a three-pay, to where the constant money is flowing, so it’s not a huge blow to our budget at the end of the year.”
The mayor restated the city earmarked the million dollars for the School of Medicine.
“We did earmark the million dollars, but I know we have some properties pending for sale,” Molina said. “… We’re trying to get that money. … I did tell Veronica we would come up with some of it and then, in like 90 days, get [funds].”
Molina said he recommended giving three payments within the fiscal year.
“But we’re committed, Dr. Bailey, 100 percent, Veronica. We’re committed to this, ” Molina reassured President Guy Bailey and Gonzales, who attended the meeting. “We’ve got challenging times for us.”
Enriquez explained why he would prefer for the payment to happen at the end of the fiscal year.
“One of the suggestions that I made regarding this million-dollar payment, or investment, and I truly believe that it’s an investment for our community, is that we do it at the end of the [fiscal] year, like we’re doing it now,” Enriquez said. “… I think that would alleviate a lot of the appropriations in the middle of the year … and we’ll be able to fund it at the end of the year with savings from different departments.”
In other business, the council adopted the tax rate and levy of $0.6350 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
The next meeting will take place Sept. 18.
