Undaunted that his entreaties to the UT System to move its new campus downtown seem to have fallen on deaf ears, Hizzoner Da Mayor Tony Martinez has launched a media blitz (with our dollars, of course) to offer the voracious UT Regents a palatable "package" so they can stay put.
In a three-quarter paid ad in Sunday's Brownsville Herald, the city is asking property owners within the boundary of Boca Chica Boulevard, the U.S. border and the Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport to submit a letter of interest to the city (or perhaps United Brownsville?) that they be included in the Request For Proposals (RFP) to be presented to the UT System to see if maybe, just maybe, the Regents will deign to stay downtown instead of moving on up north as most new enterprises are wont to do in Browntown.
Da Mayor, of course, admonishes the property owners that "all properties considered will be at fair market value with appraisal confirmation and in accordance with the Texas Government Code."So Realtors, real-estate investors and property owners, Da Mayor wants you to jump on board with him and offer the UT System – the third-richest institution of higher education in the United States – your property at no profit. Real estate investors locally will tell you that the market has not only hit bottom, but has gone below ground level. So the mayor's advice amounts to "sell low" and take a loss in your investment in the interest of helping out the poor UT System so that they won't go somewhere else."
About the only thing missing from this appeal is a phony deadline for action that is the hallmark of every and all communications that the UT System, through its UTB reps like Juiliet Garcia and Michael Putegnat, have made to the Texas Southmost College trustees and local residents.
At least it wasn't the voracious offer made by UTB's Juliet Garcia when she offered local residents the opportunity to offer a new "partnership" to TSC district taxpayers with the caveat that the UT System would only agree if they turned over the entire assets of the community college – real estate, buildings, bank deposits, future dreams, etc. – as a "gift" to the Regents.
But she wasn't totally greedy. The "partnership" would last only as long as it took TSC taxpayers to pay the $100 million in construction bonds and interest. After that, the UT System would consider the partnership finished and the voracious Regents would walk away from the carcass that would have been TSC.
Someone at the Herald either has a wicked sense of humor or involuntarily placed the promo for the Herald comics at the bottom of Hizzonor's ad.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Hilarious," reads the text at the bottom of the page. We agree.
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