CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — In November, Corpus Christi voters struck down Proposition A. It was the city's plan to repurpose the Type A sales tax that is nearing it's expiration date. Voters took many issues with the ballot language from the city.
At the city council meeting on Tuesday, City Manager Peter Zanoni presented the latest plan to repurpose that sales tax, as well as a map of how they get plan to put it all together.
Type A sales tax is a tax already collected. It's made up of two taxes, each 1/8 of a cent. 1/8 of a cent is dedicated to maintaining and paying off the debt of the American Bank Center (ABC). The second 1/8 of a cent is dedicated to the maintenance and debt of the Seawall. The terms of those taxes expire in 2025 and 2026 respectively. The taxes can only be used for economic development purposes.
“We learned from the last time that more stakeholder and community is really the key to success. And so, we have the next two months to work with the stakeholders,” Zanoni said.
Three key changes come to the new plan. It’s a portion of tax that can only be used for economic development.
For the first 1/8 of a cent of sales tax, the plan is to expand it’s use from just the ABC to everything inside the ABC such as the area, convention center and Selena Auditorium. It will also include the city owned properties in the SEA District such as the museums, Harbor Playhouse and Water Garden.
The second 1/8 cent of sales tax went towards maintaining the Seawall. The new plan includes that, as well as expanding the use to city-wide drainage and stormwater projects.
“For examples include on North Beach, our linear canal that we’re working on, that would be an eligible project. Williams Road drainage would be another one. The Oso Creek drainage improvements,” Zanoni said.
However, a couple council members had issue with the language used in this part of the plan. Mike Pusley said the language is too broad.
"That's the exact kind of thing we have to be sure we don't get ourselves in trouble on this go around. We need to tie this language down," Pusley said.
"I agree with Councilman Pusley here that we need to have very specific language, so it is very clear as to understanding what we're going to be using it for," Councilman Gil Hernandez said.
Councilman Dan Suckley liked the idea that with this language more residents can benefit from the use of this sales tax as opposed to just people downtown.
"You don't want to be too vague, but you want to be able to show and quantify for every section of the community, what could potentially be in it for them," Suckley said.
This time around the city will be talking to and receiving feedback from community leaders, organizations and entities. Through the rest of April, city staff intend to meet with several stakeholder groups.
Zanoni said including the rest of the city on the decision making process will help everyone have a better understanding come election day.
“The city council has a baseline recommendation for the renewal of the two 1/8 cents. So, we want to make sure that the community is in agreement with that or if they want to fine tune it,” he said.
Then come May, the city is holding five community input sessions for residents to share their thoughts. Also, a survey will go out online for residents to share opinions.
The last change to the new plan is this plan has term limit of 25 years. With no end date on the last plan, it was a major concern for residents. There was no mention of including any plans for a hotel in this plan.
With the concerns council members had on the wording of the plan, a workshop will be planned for them to tighten up the language and get more information from city staff.
After May, council and city staff will review all the feedback to tweak the plan. In June and July, the plan should come together to be presented to City Council. It's expected council will vote on a plan by early August.
This final plan would then be the one voters see on Nov. 5.
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