As sales tax use is mulled, community meetings are planned. Here's where they will be.
City officials have narrowed the focus of what voters may consider in the fall for how sales taxes are used — and have also scheduled dates for voters to weigh in on the proposals.
It’s part of a new round of discussions on the potential repurposing of existing sales taxes. An earlier proposition brought to residents in November 2023 failed by 70% of the vote.
Discussions on what a new proposition may look like have been underway and will continue, Assistant City Manager Heather Hurlbert told members of the Corpus Christi Business and Job Development Corp. in a recent meeting.
“That work started right after the last election,” she said.
Two voter-approved sales taxes — one-eighth cent dedicated to downtown’s seawall and one-eighth cent contributing to the city’s arena — are set to expire in 2026 and 2025, respectively.
The proposition last fall would have repurposed the funding to go instead to a slew of new projects, including improvements to certain parks and commercial streets, increasing flight options out of Corpus Christi International Airport and projects for what was described as the American Bank Center complex and its surrounding area.
Eligible projects for the complex would have included improving the arena and Selena auditorium, as well as expanding and renovating the convention center.
Ballot language had included among its optional uses making investments in a convention center hotel — the intent, according to several city officials, being to fund incentives for a private company to construct a hotel.
The project was among the most cited reasons the proposition failed.
In the aftermath of the election, city officials said they were interested in bringing a different proposition back to voters — but in doing so, collecting more public input ahead of time. Off the table, said several: anything to do with a hotel.
Those efforts were launched with initial one-on-one discussions with the City Council but are continuing with various stakeholders “to get those ideas and concepts,” Hurlbert told the board, which oversees the seawall and arena sales tax revenue.
A presentation before the board in its March meeting named possible repurposing of the sales and use tax as those that would go toward the entirety of the American Bank Center — the convention center, Selena auditorium and the arena — as opposed to exclusively to the arena.
Other potential projects would be improvements to certain properties owned by the city in the downtown area —the Harbor Playhouse and the Art Museum of South Texas among others centered on arts and culture — as well as flood mitigation throughout the city, including flooding control mechanisms of the seawall and stormwater improvements, the presentation showed.
The project types are those that meet the consensus of the council, City Manager Peter Zanoni told the board.
Projects that fall under the "Type A" sales tax use are those that facilitate economic development.
Those include certain quality of life improvements such as “convention, tourism and entertainment facilities, professional and amateur sports facilities, affordable housing projects, water and sewage facilities, and parking and transportation facilities,” according to the presentation.
Projects explicitly ineligible include residential streets.
Should voters reject a reauthorization and repurposing of the sales taxes, there would be additional opportunities to bring a proposal again to voters before it lapses, Zanoni said.
“What we don’t want is for some other taxing entity to get the sales tax,” he said. “Because they could, if the city doesn’t approve it for use of the city business.”
Other taxing entities that would be eligible for bringing the sales tax to voters for approval — should the city’s expire without voter reauthorization — include the Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority and Nueces County, Zanoni and Hurlbert said.
Criticisms of the city’s previous proposal had included the lack of a sunset date.
The new proposition to be considered in the fall is proposed to have a 25-year term, according to city officials.
City officials are planning a series of public input sessions for both the proposed use of sales tax, as well as proposed bond projects, that may also make it to the Nov. 5 ballots.
That’s to address another of the primary criticisms by opponents of the earlier proposition in which it was asserted there hadn't been adequate public input.
City Council members would need to finalize the list of sales tax projects — as well as Bond 2024 projects – by August.
Sessions are planned for each of the city’s five districts. It is also planned for an online survey to be available, Hulbert said.
According to a recent presentation made before the council, the meetings will include:
May 6: Northwest Senior Center, 9725 Up River Rd.
May 8: Lindale Senior Center, 3135 Swantner Dr.
May 9: Veterans Memorial High School, 3750 Cimarron Blvd.
May 13: Ethel Eyerly Senior Center, 654 Graham Rd.
May 15 – Corpus Christi Water, Choke Canyon Room, 2726 Holly Road
Each meeting would be held between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., Zanoni said.
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More: City officials say there were missteps made in Prop A. Here's what that may mean.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Corpus Christi sales tax back to go to public before voters
