CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — One of the divisive issues that could be the driving force behind this year's November's election is Proposition A for the city of Corpus Christi which promises economic growth if allowed to re-purpose the city's existing quarter-cent sales tax.
Folks packed into the town hall at Island Gatherings on Padre Island as they came to hear from both sides of the debate over the city's Prop A. Instead, it leaned heavily against.
It was hosted by the Coastal Bend Republican Coalition.
Former city council member David Loeb has been among those leading the effort against Prop A and served on the panel and answered questions from the public.
He says what his stance comes down to is how a possible convention center hotel project would be funded.
"We shouldn't use tax payer money to build a hotel for a private developer," he said.
Loeb told the crowd that tax payer money would go in and would never come back out.
"Every dollar generated in tax revenue for this goes to sustain it and we have to put in $1.4 billion dollars of tax payer money over the next 30 years to keep it alive, if all the numbers work according to the city's own study.
To recap, Prop A aims to re-purpose the existing quarter-cent sales tax.
Right now it can only be used for improvements to the sea wall and American Bank Center arena but if approved by voters, it would expand the use of that money to include citywide regional parks, fixing commercial and industrial streets, attracting new flight destinations to and from Corpus Christi, and repairing, renovating, and improving the Selena Auditorium Arena, and Convention Center.
However, it also includes the possibility of a convention center hotel built and managed by the private sector.
It's something that seems to be the most contentious part in all of this.
A regional hotel director of sales Joshua Tijerina was also on the panel. He is against Prop A.
"From a hotel point of view business wise it does not make sense. We believe there has been a lot of misinformation kept from voters about the hotel," he said.
Council member Gil Hernandez was the third speaker on the panel. He clarified he's not necessarily against what the city is trying to accomplish, but that ultimately it's just not ready to go before voters.
"I don't think this was ready for prime time," he said. "I asked for it to be pulled off the ballot. I don't want to cancel this, we have to take care of the convention center, the facilities need to be addressed, I just think this is probably not the best way to do it."
He said if voters strike it down, there is an opportunity to bring it back.
"If it fails, it's not the end of the world," he said. "There is an opportunity to come back and reinvent it, get more public input, do more with it, have a better understanding, be a little bit more transparent, have a plan, understand what the investment in this convention hotel would be, to where it's not an ambiguous number. We need to have some an idea what this should look like."
Originally council members Dan Suckley and Mike Pusley who are for Prop A had both agreed to attend based on the idea of explaining the proposition to an audience, but then a flyer for the event surfaced.
"It came out, I was unknowingly sent a graphic of what the actual meeting intent was where it was pitting two council members against another council member with another community member in a debate like format," said Suckley. "Of course I was shocked."
Suckley and Pusley ended up declining to attend after they felt the organizers were not transparent with the intent of the meeting.
"It was more of the principal of the thing, of how all three of us (Pusley, Suckley, Hernandez) were told independently they were coming to talk to the group but nobody knew the actual format. Secondarily, the divisiveness it could create by pitting council members vs council members," said Suckley.
3NEWS also spoke by phone with council member Mike Pusley who said, "simply put I just wasn't aware that was what the format was going to be, that it was being set up as a debate. I just don't think it's appropriate for me to be out debating members of the council that I serve with and work with on a day in and day out basis. I didn't agree with that format. I was perfectly willing to come speak and answer questions as a single person in the room and I thought that is what they originally proposed to do."
Suzanne Guggenheim was one of the organizers of the Q and A event.
"Let's say this was a misunderstanding of what this was going to be, whether it was a one sided or two sided event," she said. "This is an important topic, everybody is talking about it. Is it good or is it bad? We thought even though we have our own position we thought it was important for the people to hear from both sides."
Meantime Suckley asks voters to do their homework.
"The city is not building a hotel, city is not operating a hotel, the city is going to provide some incentives for a private developer to come in and do just that."
Election Day is November 7, 2023.
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