CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Former councilmember David Loeb and others who helped to defeat Prop A in November say they've been talking with city officials for months about bringing the proposal back to voters later this year. They say they're happier with the city's strategy this time around where stakeholder's are being included at the front end of the process instead of the backend.
Ajit David with RGB Hospitality who was one of a number of community leaders who expressed concerns about Prop A last year and helped play a role in its defeat by voters.
”They’re doing a very good job, the city manager’s office is doing excellent in reaching out to anybody and everybody who has stake is part of the community or is interested in learning more, so I think they got it right this time taking the first step,” David said.
Councilman Roland Barrera said the city has to do a better job this time as it looks to take elements of Prop A and put those back in front of voters in November.
”They made it simple saying no to an open checkbook and no to new taxes, so I think if we can answer that to the public and let them know it’s not a new tax and be very specific about what the money’s for,” Barrera said.
City Manager Peter Zanoni told 3NEWS the city has been working to get everyone on board with these two propositions. The idea is to take each one-eighth cent sales tax and let voters to decide what they want to spend those tax dollars on in the future.
Those proposals right now include refurbishing the American Bank Center and doing flood controls projects across the city.
Zanoni also said that they’re looking for those tax plans to expire in 25 years.
”Get a lot of engagement in the beginning and that’s what we’re doing now," Zanoni said. "We’ve been working with the council in February and March and now in April, May and June we will be working with stakeholders, the community ultimately we’re going to come up with a plan that pretty much everyone is in agreement with and that wasn’t necessarily the case before.”
Former councilman David Loeb was also against Prop A. He said the new proposition needs to include improvements everyone can get behind because he says city voters don’t usually approve the spending of huge amounts of money for one part of town.
”Maybe add some education funding, add improvements on the parts of town that aren’t near the convention center where everybody who walks in feels like there’s something in it for them,” Loeb said.
Zanoni told 3NEWS that he agrees with Loeb's idea to ensure that every part of town gets something out of the propositions.
Those sales taxes together bring in $16 million a year to the city.