Portland News (Portland, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 11, 1988 Page: 1 of 10
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UPbRTLAND 1X1
Dedicated To The Best Interests Of Portland
"Gem City Of The Gulf"
*** wland, T«ms —
olume XX
Portland, Texas
H>01 1'iilit i, I ,l.i
/'4IXI M. Il.il i I I Ml Kn.,y
1‘utU.iiKl, I*. /Hjt/.t
/BJ/q — iu rayes — olo.
City Tax Rate Staole;
•!o Increase Expected
By Lee Ann Nefll
The 19M-K General Fund Budget
for the City of Portland haa been
reviewed and no tax increase ii pro-
posed for the coming year
Glty Councilmembera and staff
met Saturday in a day long meeting
to review the budget and a pulbic
bearing will be held on Aug. It After
the hearing, the Council can then
adopt budget an proposed or with
amendments.
City Manager Richard Burdine
said, The bottom line is that there
is no tax increase proposed, nq rate
increases for water or sewer and no
fee increases of any kind."
The 198M9 expenditures for the
General Fund are projected to be
$2 J04 $02 Thu figure is three per-
cent above the 19B7-H budgeted and
revised expenditures.
Revenues are expected to be
$2,907,066; equal ta> 10C percent of
budgeted expenditures
Burdine said that there are not
many changes in iroporty evalua-
tions this year and although the tax
base is slightly leas the tax rate will
remain the same
He said, “Property taxes,
representing over one half of the
total General Fond revenues (
ll.426.000i are projaicted to remain
the same as the 190 -06 revised
estimate Thu reflaxta the revenues
generated by the name tax rate .
16166 per $1001 ai in 1907-W The
calculated effective tax rate for 19M
is $6196 per $100 Therefore, by
maintaining the 1 NT las rate, a
slight 1751 tax rate reduction
results."
Contributing to lie tliree percent
State Tourism Director
Advises Area Chambers
Hospitality and good highways u
what keeps tourists coming back to
Texas said Johnnie Johnson, Ex-
ecutive Director of the Texas
Tourist Council.
Johnson addressed the Portland
Chamber of Commerce as well as
representatives from Ingleside,
Kockport. Port Aransas and Aran-
sas Pass, at a luncheon at the Nor-
thShore Country Club Tuesday
He said that the first impression a
tourist gets of a town is from the
* line people, or the ones who
^ he public
tW *se are your service station at-
nits and your police People like
tnem to be nice and courteous and
that's what it takes to get people to
come back,"hesaid
Johnson suggested that a seminar
h^ield to train these people on how
^keet visitors and show haspttali-
He has been in the chamber
business a long tune and said that
the same qualities (hat attract
businesses to an area will attract
tourist too.
Hospitality is the key and
Portland has done a magnificent
job It’s clean and looks good.' he
said.
Johnson said a tourist is anyone
who is 1*0 miles or more away from
his home and that the numbei one in-
dustry in tourism in Texas is
automobiles, and food is second
followed by public transportation
The tourist industry with the
highest payroll in Texas is public
transportation Johnson said this is
because Dallas and San Antonio are
home bases for major airlines such
as Southwest and American and
that makes one heck of a payroll '
The industry that employs the
most people is food He said that
largest industry in the date and )
need
vatna
said
l you
need to net your siiare and take ad-
vatnage of every opportunity.” he
Johnson added that 72.000 people
spend winter in Texas .ind that they
bnng in a lot of fresih money
"Tourism is a lug business that
has been overlooked, but it gets
stronger by the day. There are still
al) sorts i»f pouib lites open to this
state and the Texis Tourist Council
is willing to help any community
because we want you! to get your
share .” he said
1 FXAS TOURISM JoOnny Johnson Executive Director bI the Texas
Tourist Council was »he guest speaker at the monthly Portland
Chamber of Commerce luncheon held Tuesday at NorthShore He
.poke on the tourism industry m Texas
increase m expenditure by tiie City
are continuation of tlie merit pay
plan for all City employees, an-
ticipated utility rate increases of 10
percent for phone and 15 percent for
electricity, anticipated liability and
food accounts for 4! .21 percent of all
people employed in toariam in Tex-
as
The number orw destination for
short term visitors to tie state, less
than 30 days, is Dallas, followed by
San Antonie, Houston, Ft Worth and
El Paso
For long term visitors, the number
one destination is Harlingen follow-
ed by McAllen, Brownsville, San An-
tonio and Corpus Clrifti.
"That brings us tomr More long
term visitors will come here than
any other part of tie country except
Florida and Southern California It
is beautiful tc spend the winter here
The climate is outstan-iing and we
nave good highway i,” said Johnson
He said that otter than friendly
people, the greatest draw to the
state us good highwii^ find one out of
every $4 spent on construction in this
state is on highway i
He also said the itate of Texas has
increased the amount budgeted for
advertising from $12 million to $5 6
million and plan to spend almost $9
million on advertising for tounsm
next yeai
We are marketing the state of
Texas and tourism brings in $17.3
billion each year It li the second
crease of 10 percent, substantial
capital and maintenance expenses
for recreational facilities such as
$40,000 for swimming pool expansion
and $12,009 to resurface tennis
courts and five year cycle replace-
ment of two vehicles in CID and
Police Administration in addition to
regular two year cycle replacement
of petrel cars
The 1960-09 expenditures by
department when compared to the
1967-68 budget yield the following
relative increases and decreases,
administration Is down three per-
cent, police is up 4 5 percent, fire is
up 16 percent, other public safety is
down four percent, publr orks is
down one percent, parks i recrea-
tion » up 17 prreent, librn. j is down
four percent and non-oepartmental
expenses are up 20 6 percent
Bob Mai ter, mayor pro-tern, sug-
gested that the Council look at rais-
ing the tax rate this year, but Bur
dine said he didn t recommend the,
rate increase this year because the
next few years there will be a loss of
tax base due to the expansion of the
highway and possible loss of
businesses
Burdine said. It is remarkable
that we are able to do what we're do-
ing with a dwindling base The sales
tax
projected revenues
'lpert
Sales tax is expected to bnng in
about $475,000 this year which is an
increase of three percent over the
1967 M revised budget
Burdine said, A modest rebound
in retail sales activity was expected
in early 1967 66 but did not appear
until May and tune This trend is ex-
pected to continue through the 1968-
89 fiscal year '
Utility franchise fees are expected
to increase by seven percent this
year . The increase is attnlaited to
higher electrical and telephone rates
going into affect in late 1988 or early
1969 and a slight reduction in the
residential vacancy date
"Until the Public Utility Commis-
sion acts, the exact amount of the
rate increases will not be known
However, preliminary estimates of
electric rate increases resulting
from bringing the South Texas Pro-
ject on line show an overall lmj
of 40 percent uri 5-7 years, " said f
dine While these increases may
yield more revenue to the city, we
should anticipate a reduction in elec -
tricity use through conservation.
See BUDGET Page 8
per ci
the projected revenues It would be
nice if they were about 50 percent.'
LOOKING IT OVER School Board members alonq with architect Raymond Gignac, inspect the
held house addition at G »* High School which is expected to b«? completed b, Monday Th»- addition cost
approximately SSO.OOO and was funded by an intermediate source not out of the general budget
Although some items were cut to lower cost, the buddinq was des.qned •« ti . ... i0 be added ba<x «n
when the funds are available
Mayor's Resignation Rejected
By Gregory Council Monday
mpact
d Bur-
in a gesture of good faith, the
Gregory City Council voted to reject
the resignation oil Mayor Elvira
Hinojosa until some explanation is
given
Mrs Hinojosa submitted a letter
of resignation dated Aug 3 to the Ci-
ty and said in a letter to the Editor
School Board Discusses
Raises For Teachers
In a workshop meeting Tuesday
night, the G-PISD Board of Trustees
reviewed a new salary schedule that
would give all teachers and aids
some type of r lise this year
According to Carole Breed, who
was chairman of the Salary Review
Committee, if this schedule was ap-
proved, the average increase in
salary would t«e aland 2 9 percent
This would mean an increase of up
to $702 for a bachelor's degree and
up to $799 for a master s degree,
depending on which step the teacher
is on in the schedule
Although the average raise would
be 2.9 percent, some employees
salary would increase a? much as
.710 percent or as little as 093 per-
cent over last year
Breed said. We have several
teachers who nave been at the top of
the schedule for several years and
haven't receiv ed a raise Depending
on agreement to this schedule by the
Board, there us money to increase all
salaries to son ie extent
She said although the raise would
not be equal to a full step in all cases,
everyone would be getting
something as opposed to freezing
3a lanes
Under the new schedule, the local
base for bachelor's degree would be
$2,900 and $3,150 for a Master's This
plus the state base, which increased
this year, would equal to an average
2.9 percent increase in salaries
Board member Gilbert Cortinas
said this increase will not raise taxes
or cause the district to dip into
reserves
oping to in-
aily Atten-
Breed said they are hopin
crease the Average
dance by 4
at $1,600 per head that would give
them a comfortable margin to pay
for the increase
Dr. James Hall, superintendent,
said if the ADA does not increase,
the district will be cutting it close
and may have to dip into reserve
funds
I.aura Baugh, teacher at G-P Jr.
High. said. The work done by the
committee is good, but the teacher's
maintain that it is possible to get a
full step increase with the present
budget I think you are being con-
servative and that is good, but cut-
ting teacher’s salary is detrimental
to the children The 2.9 percent
doesn’t even keep up with inflation
After the reform'. it looked like we
got a big pay raise but we were just
playing catch-up You can't keep
good people if they can’t afford to
live on what they make "
According to business manager Al
♦posed sd
increase the overall
oposed schedule would
payroll for
teachers with Master’s by $47,000
and $100,390 for those with
Bachelor's degree'
Because several members of the
Board were not present, the
schedule was only discussed and will
be voted on at the next meeting.
Aug 16.
The Salary Review Committee
made up of Breed. Cortinas, Phillip
Gaston, Nelson and Will McDonald,
also looked into other areas that
were of concern to the Board
See SALARIES. Oage8
in the Portland News that she c ould
no longer work with a vinous coun-
cil.”
She said, "I feel like resigning was
something I had to do.”
However, several citizens at the
meeting said they weren't satsified
and wanted an explanation as to why
she was leaving
Jerry Rivera, Mayor Pro-Tern,
said. T don't think the Council is
vinous and we are trying to work
with her Why she resigned is still
unkown to me. I have tried to reach
her and haven't gotten any
response ”
Margaret Marquez, a • ltizen of
Gregory, said It was a close' race
and a lot of people believe m the
mayor She owes it fan explanation i
to Gregory and we need to know
Why does a mayor resign after two
months' We need answers from the
council. It is hard to come in new
Maybe she didn't feel supported, but
she deserves a chance
Ofelia Perez. CounciUnembei
said. We've had a big problem with
communication and nothing has
been acconiplis.hed so far this term
We can’t force her to serve* and we
can't afford to not a« < omplish
anything for the next two years
Rivera said. We haven't b**en
able to work together for the past
two months She could have come to
me or anyone for help We nave ask
ed her if she needs help and she said
no."
Despite this, the Council voted
unanimously to rejec t the resigna-
tion until they c an sit down with Mrs
Hinojosa and find out why she chose
to resign.
The item will be placed on the
agenda for the next meeting on Aug
areas and most cities in the
Homeport Area have them
He said the ordinance has distance
factors and license requirements
arid other stipulations and is pat
terened after one used in the city of
Dallas
"I know that an individual has
come to the ( ouncii requesting infor-
mation about this type of business
and is planning to put in an adult
bookstore near the* old Texas Wreck-
ing building 1 hat is not in the city
limits and although it is in the ex-
traterritorial jurisdiction, it does not
amply
3ey fwiok up to water
ithritv regulations
They also approved on first
reading the adoption of an ordinance
ting sexually oriented
iiness
Attorney, Martin Haskett
This a comprehensive or-
dinance regulating massage
parlors, pornographic book stores
and other sexually oriented
business San Patricio Com
the proc ess of controllm
regul
busin
City
said, ‘
uunty is i
sewer " said Basket
He said anyone who can comply
with ordinance, has good more*
character and lac k of of criminal tn-
volvement can operate a business
The Council also discussed re-
questing additional funds for the
1188 tr> Budget from the San Patnno
Drainage District
< ouiu ilman Arturo Aleman said
that f »reg«»r> »*• allocated $40,000 an-
nually to rx* used for drainage pro-
jects and that last year they did
some channel lining and need to con-
tinue with that this vear
Steve Elliot with tin* (drainage
See GREGORY 8
Fire Department
Benefit Dance Set
The Portland Volunteer Fire
Department will lx- having a
benefit dance this Saturday from
8 p rn
Araden
ice this Saturday fr
midnight at Portland
Set ups wd be provided arid
door prized donated by areas
businesses will lx* given away
Music will be by the Red River
Band Tickets are $7.50 per per-
son and may be purchased at
Showtime Video. Floyd’s
Restaurant, the Police Depart
meat or at the door
Proceeds trom the dance will
go towards the1 medical expenses
of Dawn Dai>. wifi of Ken Daly,
Chaplain for the PVFD
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Neill, Lee Ann. Portland News (Portland, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 11, 1988, newspaper, August 11, 1988; Portland, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth871234/m1/1/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bell/Whittington Public Library.