Border Town

Did city dupe U.S. Customs and Border Protection? Since Sept. 11, this border town has significantly increased its sales tax revenue while at the same time complained that long wait times at the border has choked its economy and subsequently gained concessions from a sympathetic U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

I requested to see Calexico’s sales tax revenue data to compare it with its neighbor across the border, Mexicali. I expected to see an inverse relationship. I expected to see Calexico’s revenue drop while Mexicali’s raise. After all, Calexico had been complaining that the long wait at the border was crippling the economy. Less Mexicali shoppers crossed because of it and forgone on the goods available at the U.S., they claimed. I was surprised to see that Calexico’s share had actually increased since 9/11. This while a new U.S. Customs and Border Protection port director made much concessions to the city in extending the hours of a peripheral port. I don’t know how those sales tax figures fit in to the whole picture, but it is definitely not something city officials had brought up before.

I saved the story for a week and published it the day Rep. Bob Filner came to the Valley and spoke with all the Chamber of Commerces, presumably about how the border wait times negatively impacted the region. I wanted to give Filner something to think about.