The Edinburg City Council has approved a tax rate and budget for Fiscal Year 2020, which begins Tuesday.
Councilmembers debated over the initial proposed tax rate of .685 cents per $100 valuation in previous meetings. The rate would have added a 5-cent increase to the city’s current rate of .635.
Mayor Richard Molina motioned to drop the current city tax rate down half a penny to .63 and adopt the 5-cent increase for a total of .68 cents per $100 valuation. The motion passed with a vote of 4-1, with only Councilmember Homer Jasso Jr. voting against it.
“The bulk of what was increased was already voted on by the community, and it’s to address drainage problems that we have in the community,” Mayor Pro Tem David Torres told The Rider after last Monday’s special meeting. “We’re already working on implementing those funds efficiently and effectively.”
In a 3-2 vote, the council approved the $167.9 million. Councilmembers Gilbert Enriquez and Jasso voted against it.
The council went into executive session to discuss the duties, responsibilities, remuneration and employment of City Secretary Ludivina Leal. Leal was arraigned Sept.4 on one charge of illegal voting in connection with the 2017 mayoral election. Twenty-two people have been arrested in the case, including Mayor Molina.
As previously reported by The Rider, Molina was arraigned earlier this year on charges of organized election fraud and 12 counts of illegal voting.
After the executive session, the council took no action on the item.
“I believe in innocent until proven guilty,” Torres told The Rider. “I really believe in that, so whichever way it goes, we can address it.”
Molina then made a motion to appoint Tomas D. Reyna, assistant city manager as elections clerk for the upcoming election on Nov. 5. The motion passed 3-2, with Enriquez and Jasso voting against it.
The council voted 4-1 authorizing City Manager Juan G. Guerra to enter an agreement for a six-month pilot program with Blue Duck Scooters to provide scooter rental service for the city.
“I think it’s a very democratic response,”Alec James Martinez, government relations manager for Blue Duck Scooters told The Rider. “Let the citizens decide if this is something they want or not. All the power is still in the City of Edinburg if two months in they don’t want it. If three months in they don’t want it, they have the power to stop whenever they’d like.”
Martinez said the scooters will be placed in various locations across the city.
“All you have to do is walk up to it, unlock it, ride it whenever you want, park it correctly and then that’s that,” he said.
Torres, whose daughter attends UTRGV, understands the problem students have with parking on or around campus.
“I’m not sure if it will work, but it won’t hurt to try,” he said. “I know we do have an issue with students that have to park far away. It’s something that we’ve worked on, but it’s still a problem, and the university works on it too, but we just have a huge student population.”
Martinez said it will cost $1 to rent a scooter and .23 cents per minute of use. He said there will be discount programs for low-income residents, veterans and students.
“So, what we’re going to do is a subscription program for students that’s highly discounted,” Martinez said. “So you get about an hour of time every day for a month, broken up into 15-minute chunks. So, it’s perfect for the student just trying to get to the parking lot or to class or to the café.”
Guerra said there are three areas where the scooters might work out.
“One is UTRGV, the second one is [the] Hidalgo County [Courthouse], and then the third one is along the hike-and-bike trail on Jackson that we have,” he told The Rider. “It’s a mode of transportation. Hopefully, it’s something that does not cause any injuries.”
