The Brownsville City Commission heard presentations on the Road Capital Improvement Program and the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget during its Aug. 15 meeting.
Eddie Haas, a consultant from Freese and Nichols Inc., an engineering, planning and consulting firm based in Fort Worth, gave the presentation on the Road Capital Improvement Program.
Haas introduced the concept of the Capital Recovery Program, which focuses on collecting funds by adding a fee to new residential and commercial development over the course of 10 years.
Over the 10-year period, Haas hopes that through the Capital Recovery Fee program, the city will have collected an estimated $197 million that would be used for building new roads and additional lanes to existing ones.
According to the presentation, new businesses attract more people, which attracts more traffic. This leads to roads needing more space.
“The new roads’ cost right now will be picked up by your tax base unless this funding mechanism, Capital Recovery Fee, is adopted,” Haas said.
If the program is enacted, business owners would pay the fee rather than taxpayers.
“If you all adopt that tool, then that burden is shared by new development up to the level that the commission decided, and that would be up to 50% on a collection rate,” Haas said.
A public hearing is set for Sept. 19 during which the Capital Improvements Advisory Committee will decide whether the plan is going to be implemented.
If the committee approves the program, then business owners would gain the new responsibility of the Capital Recovery Fee starting October 2024, Haas said.
However, there will be a grace period of one year to give business owners time to acquire developmental permits, which would not allow the charging of the fee until October 2025.
“I think this is a great idea,” said Linda C. Macias, Brownsville District 2 city commissioner. “Infrastructure is extremely expensive and we do need to close the gap, so I think this is an innovative way and it’s already happening in other cities.”
Michael Delmore, chief financial officer for the City of Brownsville, presented the second Fiscal Year 2024 Budget workshop. Delmore said his two main objectives for the presentation were the discussion of rewarding employees and street improvement.
Delmore said the department’s priority is to give employees a 3.5% raise through a Cost of Living Adjustment along with a stipend by the end of September. For part-time employees, the stipend would be $658 and for full-time employees, $1,315.
The stipend would cost $1.2 million in total.
The chief financial officer said rates for the comprehensive benefits package for FY 2024, which includes medical, dental and vision insurance, would stay the same as 2023.
Delmore pointed out that street improvements would take place on Old Highway 77, Stagecoach Road, Wild Rose Lane, East 14th Street, Coffee Port Road, Coffee Road and Old Alice Road. The cost of road capital improvement would amount to $14.5 million.
Delmore said that although the budget may sound like a lot, it’s “not a whole lot of money.”
“If you took every dollar from every fund, not just the general fund, and divided by the number of people, citizens that we have here, it’s only $2.43 per day,” he said. The total amount of the FY 2024 budget is $121 million.
Delmore compared the cost per day to a medium iced mocha from McDonald’s.
“It shows our cost versus something that citizens may purchase every day,” he said.
Brownsville City Commissioner At-Large “A” Tino Villarreal asked Delmore what the focus of the budget was.
“The two areas that we focused on, obviously, were highways and streets because citizens have been patiently waiting for years for that opportunity and employees have also been patiently waiting to get their salaries adjusted,” Delmore replied.
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