Jasmin Espinosa BROWNSVILLE – Proposition A Cameron County Venue Project was rejected with 9,769 votes against and 6,272 votes in favor, with a total of 16,041 votes, this is the third time voters reject this project.
The Proposition A Cameron County venue project would have created a new multipurpose arena in the county.
The arena was expected to be located off the expressway, in Olmito by the Madeira Development Project.
County Judge Eddie Treviño said the proposition came after multiple concerns, one being UTRGV commencement ceremonies being held outside in inclement weather.
“Having the graduations outside was becoming quite problematic,” Treviño said. “UTRGV moved their graduations from the Brownsville campus over to Edinburg because they don’t feel well, there’s not an, there’s not an adequate indoor facility.”
Treviño said it would have been beneficial for UTRGV Brownsville students and other higher education systems including Texas Southmost College, South Texas College and local high schools.
“UTRGV is very interested in having sporting events there, including basketball and volleyball games, having different types of events like monster truck events, Disney on ice, things of that nature, having community events, having conferences, having conventions,” he said.
If Proposition A was approved, Treviño said hotels in Cameron County had to allocate seventeen percent of the price paid for a hotel room to fund the arena.
“The visitor tax will not be sufficient to pay for the entire cost of the venue,” he said. “We will have to go and find some other potential sources of funding, but hopefully on a very aggressive time frame, hopefully three years.”
Psychology senior Ayali Peña said the arena would reduce travel time for graduating Brownsville students.
“I think it gives an opportunity for those who can’t travel all the way over there to graduate here, where they’re mainly from,” Peña said. “So, I think it’s a good opportunity. It’ll be out in public, and it’ll have more access to those who can’t travel all the way over there.”
Nursing freshman Joel Berlanga said he believes the arena will bring a lot of people, but it would raise taxes for Brownsville residents.
“I guess it would be good because they have, like, a lot of events right here in the, the valley is going to bring up a lot of people, but at the same time would be bad, because if you say the raising taxes and right here in the valley, there’s most people that don’t have like a lot to be paying for,” Berlanga said.
