Red Tape, Catch-22s Impede Progress in Texas’ Colonias
HARLINGEN — Ask many of the officials charged with improving conditions in Texas’ colonias about their progress and receive a string of pre-packaged responses: about how generous state and federal budget writers have been, how wisely money has been spent, and how cooperatively they have worked together to aid the more than 2,300 impoverished villages on this side of the Mexican border. “I don’t want to be bragging, but the fact that we have several state agencies that have programs…