‘Adelante’ …?

Both supporters and opponents of LNG carried signs at Tuesday's school board meeting. (Dina Arévalo | Staff photographer)

Both supporters and opponents of LNG carried signs at Tuesday’s school board meeting. (Dina Arévalo | Staff photographer)

School board hears pro, anti-LNG comments

By DINA ARÉVALO
Port Isabel-South Padre Press
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com

By 5:20 p.m., the Point Isabel ISD Board meeting room was already packed with local residents armed with signs, stickers, buttons and t-shirts bearing anti-LNG messages. Just before the meeting began, supporters of the Liquefied Natural Gas terminals gathered in the room, as well, holding signs of their own, which read “¡Adelante!”

The crowd had gathered after a social media blitz by members of both sides had encouraged strong turnout in advance of Tuesday’s regular school board meeting. On the agenda under the section for Executive Session were two items relating to the projects, specifically, that of Rio Grande LNG, which is one of three LNG companies hoping to construct export terminals along the Port of Brownsville Ship Channel. Rio Grande LNG’s proposal is the largest of the three projects.

Representatives for Rio Grande LNG were scheduled to meet with the board in closed session to, as the agenda described, hold a “discussion concerning commercial or financial information received from a business prospect relevant to economic development negotiations.”

Too, the board would discuss with the Economic Development Act with their legal counsel.

It was these two items that were of particular concern to opponents of the LNG projects. The Texas Economic Development Act, also known as Chapter 313 under the state legal code, allows taxing entities a means of offering tax abatements to entice business enterprises to locate their facilities within a taxing entity’s boundaries. The act was created as a way for Texas communities to offer incentives to businesses to build in Texas versus elsewhere.

 

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2016/07/22/adelante/

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