Goodbye tax breaks. Ensenada can say goodbye to the proposed border tax-break that Mexico’s new president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has proposed. In a meeting with Kiko Vega, our state governor, AMLO has already confirmed that cities in the border zone that will receive these benefits will only be the ones located up to 19 miles from the US border.
There is still some confusion regarding what will happen to cities that are stuck in half, like Rosarito, that has a piece of its land out of the so-called “border zone”. If the measure is strict, everything south of K 34 would not be included; that would be El Descanso, Calafia, Las Gaviotas, El Pescador, Puerto Nuevo, Cantamar and Primo Tapia.
Our Wine Valley is getting water. An agreement has been formalized between our state government and an Israeli company in order to build a water treatment plant in Tijuana and a water line to deliver the treated water all the way to the wine valley.
The $72 million USD project will bring up to 290 gallons of water per second to the valley when the project is completed in June 2020, although it would be able to start delivering about a fourth of that amount in a little less than a year.
The Israeli company, Odis Adversa, has stated that the quality of water will be superior to the one being extracted from natural sources present in the valley.
This new endeavor will allow the valley to grow sustainably while reducing the amount of contaminated water going to the ocean in Tijuana.
More corruption, really? An elaborate network of corrupt officials and import/export companies focused on car imports has been “officially” discovered by federal authorities.
For a $300 USD “fee” per car, authorities allowed the legal importation of cars into Mexico with false documentation that stated that the cars were valued at about 10% of their real cost, thus lowering the taxes imposed on these imports by thousands of dollars per vehicle.
It is said that that up to 80,000 vehicles were imported this way, and the chiefs of the Mexican customs offices in Mexicali and Juarez were involved in the scheme.
It was a productive racket for those involved, who pocketed more than $24 million USD while it lasted.
No jail time has been announced for the corrupt officials yet, and incarceration will probably not happen.
Toll road fee increase, again. For a second time this year, there was an increase on the toll road fees, 1 more peso on the Playas and Rosarito toll booths ($36 pesos), and 3 pesos more for Ensenada ($40 pesos).
This is the second increase this year, bringing the price of traveling on the road up 14% since the start of this year.
The increase was national, with most of the toll roads in the country being subject to surges of varying percentages.
