Brownsville City Attorney Will Treviño discusses the proposed Greater Brownsville Municipal Development District

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Brownsville City Commission wants to terminate its two economic development organizations -  Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation and Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation - and replace them with a municipal development district.The new entity would be called the Greater Brownsville Municipal Development District. Whether this happens will depend on voters living within the Brownsville city limits and Brownsville’s extra territorial jurisdiction (ETJ). The vote on whether to set up the new special purpose district and dissolve GBIC and BCIC will take place in May. Will Treviño, Brownsville’s city attorney, explained what a municipal development district (MDD) is an why it is being proposed during a public hearing held at city hall on Jan. 16. He said that by including the ETJ, the City of Brownsville could pull in more sales and use taxes for the new special purpose district.“Based on the Texas Comptroller, in the ETJ there is approximately $400,000 apparently that is being left on the table that's not being collected by the city. And so this is additional revenue the city believes would help on projects both within the city and ETJ,” Treviño said.Treviño pointed out that Brownsville’s ETJ is growing.“Because of changes in state law… annexation have become very difficult. And so this is a way for the city to be able to fund projects within the city and the ETJ, especially with activities such as SpaceX, the Port, the proposed 2nd Access Point for South Padre Island. All this will start increasing the sales tax in that particular area, the ETJ. So it's a good time right now for the city to go ahead and start collecting that.”Treviño continued: “This will be replacing GBIC and BCIC with a single organization that would be able to coordinate and streamline the economic development projects and quality of life projects within the MDD.”Treviño started his remark by explaining what an MDD is.“So it is a special purpose district whose purpose is to generate economic development and growth opportunities and this includes quality of life projects. They use sales and use taxes. That is the sales tax that you collect when you make a purchase and it funds economic development and quality of life projects.”Editor's Note: To read the full story go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service website.Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.