Council renews program to reduce border wait times

A program meant to reduce wait times at the international bridges was renewed by City Council for another year Tuesday. But do the results justify the renewal?

The public private partnership pilot program lets the city raise bridge fees to help fund Customs and Border Protection officer overtime to have more lanes open more often, and make cross-border trade easier.

The program has been in place less than a year, but the CBP says that wait times have improved, albeit only slightly so far.

The renewal lets the city continue to charge 50 cents extra per car and per axle on larger trucks to pay for the extra staffing at the border crossings.

Importers and six members of council were in favor of renewing the agreement for another year.

“Yeah, we experienced growth,” said Lance Kearbey, maquila manager with Electrolux. “We experienced about a 10-15 percent growth this year, and we’re forecasting the same amount next year. So with that, we need the border to grow with us in order to continue growing our business.”

City Reps. Carl Robinson and Lily Limon voted against the renewal, voicing their reservations about the program.

“The purpose of it was to increase our cargo, our business through the maquila industry,” Limon said. “And all that we can show at this point in time is that we have cut four minutes time in that wait time. That’s not enough for us to be funding this kind of a project.”