by Legislative Media | Aug 11, 2018 | Politics
Featured: Researchers in the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Department of Health and Biomedical Sciences are working to develop a next generation of anti-HIV drugs that are more effective and have fewer side effects. Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) remains one of the leading causes of death globally. To further support studies into HIV-1, the National Institutes of Health awarded UTRGV a grant for the project, called “Nanodiamond Based Anti-HIV Drug Delivery Targeted Towards the Brain,” The grant is for $432,729 starting July 1, 2018 and ending June 30, 2021. The principal investigator is Dr. Upal Roy, Assistant Professor at the UTRGV Department of Health and Biomedical Science. From left are some of the students majoring in Biomedical Science who will be working on the research – Jonathan Abshier, Roberto DeLa Garza, Dr. Upal Roy, Jesus Hernandez and Hari Das. he Edinburg Mayor and Edinburg City Council, along with the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation and its Board of Directors, lobby the Texas Legislature and the UT System Board of Regents on matters that benefit and protect UTRGV and its School of Medicine, which have major campuses in the city.
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by Legislative Media | Mar 11, 2018 | Politics
Featured: Erika Stubberud, left, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Nursing student from Brownsville, and Alejandra Benítez, UTRGV Environmental Science student from Reynosa, Mexico, in front of the UTRGV sign as winter weather brought rare snow to the campus on Friday, December 8, 2017 in Edinburg. Edinburg’s retail economy during the November and December 2017 holiday season – which feature Thanksgiving and Christmas – showed an improvement of 0.51 percent over the same two months of the 2016 holiday season, the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation has announced. The Edinburg Mayor and Edinburg City Council, along with the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation and its Board of Directors, lobby the Texas Legislature and the UT System Board of Regents on matters that benefit and protect UTRGV and its School of Medicine, which have major campuses in the city.
Photograph By PAUL CHOUY
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by Legislative Media | Dec 22, 2017 | Politics
Featured: Honoree recipients at the 85th Annual Edinburg Chamber Installation Banquet, which was held on Wednesday October 25, 2017 at Memorial Events Center. From left: Elva Jackson Garza, Member, Board of Directors, Edinburg Chamber of Commerce (Edwards Abstract and Title Co.); Letty González, President, Edinburg Chamber of Commerce; Jacob De León, Immediate Past Chairman, Board of Directors, Edinburg Chamber of Commerce (Memorial Funeral Home); Manuel N. Cantú, Jr. 2017 Edinburg Man of the Year (Rio Valley Realty); E. Linda Villarreal, MD, 2017 Edinburg Woman of the Year (Memorial Medical Clinic); Pat Barrientos, 2017 Edinburg Chamber Ambassador of the Year (Edinburg Executive Center); Gabriel Espinoza, Jr., 2017 Edinburg Fireman of the Year; Martín Martínez, 2017 Leadership Award (City of Edinburg Parks and Recreation Department); and Alex Ríos, Chairman, Board of Directors, Edinburg Chamber of Commerce (Kids’ Kollege Learning Center and the Office of State Representative Terry Canales, District 40). These business and community leaders were honored for their achievements and dedication to the region.
Photograph By RONNIE LARRALDE
Edinburg’s retail economy from November 2016 through October 2017 has generated more than $20.9 million in local sales taxes, compared with more than $21.1 million for the same 12-month period the previous year, the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation has announced. The amount of local sales taxes collected helps reflect the strength of an economy, along with construction activities, per capita income, education, historical performances, and related trends. The sales tax, formally known as the State Sales and Use Tax, is imposed on all retail sales, leases and rentals of most goods, as well as taxable services. Texas cities, counties, transit authorities and special purpose districts have the option of imposing an additional local sales tax for a combined total of state and local taxes of 8 1/4% (.0825). From November 2016 through October 2017, Edinburg’s retail economy produced $20,934,767.43 in local sales taxes, compared with $21,171,250.82 for November 2015 through September 2016, a decrease of 1.11 percent. The year-to-date figures, which under the reporting system used by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, begin in November of each year and end in October of the following year. For October 2017, Edinburg’s retail economy produced $1,624,490.61 in local sales taxes, compared with $1,644,571.30 in October 2016, representing a decrease of 1.22 percent. The local sales tax is also used in Edinburg to help pay for many city services, while the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation uses its one-half cent local sales tax to help generate economic development in the city. The Edinburg EDC is the jobs-creation arm of Mayor Richard Molina, Mayor Pro-Tem David Torres, Councilmember Homer Jasso, Jr., Councilmember Gilbert Enríquez, and Councilmember Jorge Salinas. The Edinburg EDC Board of Directors is comprised of City Councilmember Gilbert Enríquez as President, Edinburg School Board Trustee Miguel “Mike” Farías as Vice-President, Isael Posadas, P.E., as Secretary/Treasurer, and Julio César Carranza and Noé Sauceda, Ph.D. as Members.
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by Legislative Media | Dec 13, 2017 | Politics
Featured: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class JoAnn Consiglio, assigned to Navy Officer Recruiting Station Harlingen in Texas, is joined by other sailors of Navy Recruiting District San Antonio and Navy City Outreach Southwest Region, including Lt. Cmdr. Diana Tran-Yu of Navy City, in discussing grassroots perspectives on opportunities, benefits, and careers in the Navy to students during Latina Day on Wednesday, October 4, 2017 at the Hispanic Engineering, Science, and Technology (HESTEC) Week on the Edinburg campus of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Photograph By BURRELL PARMER
With scores of Texans preparing to pay their 2017 annual home property taxes, Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, is reminding military veterans, and the surviving spouses of first responders who were killed or fatally injured in the line of duty, that there are new laws in place that can help many of them reduce the bills on their primary residence. “Home ownership is a vital part of the American Dream, and I have always supported efforts to provide property tax relief to Texans, such as local property tax freezes for homeowners who are 65-years-of-age or older, and for homeowners who have physical disabilities,” said Canales. “This year, I successfully authored House Bill 217, which provides property tax relief for certain veterans who have a disability, and I voted to place two other measures that protect homeowners on the November 2017 statewide constitutional amendments election ballot, where they were subsequently approved by voters – House Joint Resolution 21 and Senate Joint Resolution 1.” The House Research Organization, which is the nonpartisan research division of the Texas House of Representatives, provides the following background and goals of HB 217, HJR 21, and SJR 1, which became state law in 2017: House Bill (HB) 217 – Canales was the author of HB 217 while Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, sponsored Canales’ bill in the Texas Senate – provides veterans who are disabled, in the instances they were not protected under now-former Texas laws, the ability to defer collection of property taxes or the abatement of a foreclosure/sale of their home due to delinquent property taxes; House Joint Resolution (HJR) 21 – it was approved by Texas voters as Proposition 1 during November 7, 2017 state constitutional amendment election– fixes a shortcoming in current law that unfairly resulted in increasing the financial burden on a veteran with a partial disability who paid some amount of the cost of a donated home; and Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 1 – it was approved by Texas voters as Proposition 6 during the November 7, 2017 state constitutional amendment election – allows a surviving spouse of a first responder who is killed or fatally injured in the line of duty to receive an exemption from ad valorem taxation from all or part of the market value on the surviving spouse’s residence homestead, as long as the surviving spouse has not remarried since the death of the first responder. According to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Texas offers a variety of partial or total (absolute) exemptions from appraised property values used to determine local property taxes. A partial exemption removes a percentage or a fixed dollar amount of a property’s value from taxation. A total (absolute) exemption excludes the entire property from taxation. Taxing units are mandated by the state to offer certain (mandatory) exemptions and have the option to decide locally on whether or not to offer others (local option). (https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/exemptions/
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by Legislative Media | Dec 4, 2017 | Politics
Featured: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley student Brandon Lau talks about his group’s research project with Robert Kaplan, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, during the Border Economic Development and Entrepreneurship Symposium (BEDES) hosted by UTRGV, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas-San Antonio Branch, and the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. The symposium was held Friday, December 1, 2017 at the Embassy Suites in McAllen. The Edinburg Mayor and Edinburg City Council, along with the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation and its Board of Directors, lobby the Texas Legislature and the UT System Board of Regents on matters that benefit and protect UTRGV and its School of Medicine, which have major campuses in the city.
Photograph By PAUL CHOUY
Edinburg’s retail economy from November 2016 through September 2017 has generated more than $19.3 million in local sales taxes, compared with more than $19.5 million for the same 11-month period the previous year, the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation has announced. The amount of local sales taxes collected helps reflect the strength of an economy, along with construction activities, per capita income, education, historical performances, and related trends. The sales tax, formally known s the State Sales and Use Tax, is imposed on all retail sales, leases and rentals of most goods, as well as taxable services. Texas cities, counties, transit authorities and special purpose districts have the option of imposing an additional local sales tax for a combined total of state and local taxes of 8 1/4% (0.825). From November through September 2017, Edinburg’s retail economy produced $19,310,276.82 in local sales taxes, compared with $19,526,679.52 for November 205 through September 2016, a decrease of 1.10 percent. The year-to-date figures, which under the reporting system used by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, begin in November of each year and end in October of the following year. For September 2017, Edinburg’s retail economy produced $1,963,990.26 in local sales taxes, compared with $1,933,808.59 in September 2016, representing an increase of 1.56 percent. The local sales tax in Edinburg is also used to help pay for many city services, while the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation uses its one-half cent local sales tax to help generate economic development in the city. The Edinburg EDC is the jobs-creation arm of Mayor Richard Molina, Mayor Pro Tem David Torres, Councilmember Homer Jasso, Jr., Councilmember Gilbert Enríquez, and Councilmember Jorge “Coach” Salinas. The Edinburg EDC Board of Directors is comprised of City Councilmember Gilbert Enríquez as President, Edinburg School Board Trustee Miguel “Mike” Salinas as Vice-President, Isael Posadas, P.E., as Secretary/Treasurer, and Julio César Carranza and Noe Sauceda as Members.
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