El Paso seems to have pushed the envelope again. When city council told the citizens that they either had to pay for the $50 million ball park or add 2% to the hotel occupancy tax the citizens voted to let the visitors pay that part of the bill.
What did we do?
This link to information about house bill 1908 will give you an idea. Evidently Texas has hotel occupancy tax rates among the highest in the nation. Where does El Paso rank? Well, be proud. We are the highest in the state at 17.5%.
The bill will limit future increases to 17% as the absolute maximum. El Paso would be grandfathered.
According to the link high rates impact the “ability to compete for group and convention business.”
Bring more business to El Paso. Tax the living daylights out of it. The two ideas work against each other.
Of the 50 largest cities in America, El Paso has the 5th highest tax rates. See For whom the bill tolls. At one time (I have not seen figures recently) El Paso was the fourth poorest city among cities with 250,000 or more according to our then state senator.
We need leaders that understand economics.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
Cato
elpasospeak 
It’s interesting to watch people, who would typically be anti-tax, advocate higher taxes when those taxes are paid by others to subsidize something that they themselves want for their own personal benefit.
What’s happening with the hotel tax is not unlike income redistribution. Hotel owners’ businesses and their investments in our community are being put at risk in order to subsidize a for-profit baseball team owned by other individuals. The baseball team owners get ridiculously low rent (think of it as a free hotel) to help insure their success, while hotel owners must charge their own customers higher prices, which deters hotel stays and in no way benefits the hotel owners.
The city’s disrespect of hotel owners and out of town visitors will make other out of town businesses think twice about investing in or relocating to El Paso. It raises a question of trust. So much for economic development.
Are we committed to community-wide economic development or simply to downtown real estate development? The argument that those interests are aligned doesn’t ring true if you’re a hotel owner.
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Bet this never sees the light of day!
Editor:
I would suggest that business man Oscar Lesser never pay you The El Paso Times another cent in advertising dollars.
It might be construed a conflict of interest.
Now that said is there any conflict of interest with the City of El Paso Texas renting the Newspaper Printing Corporations office?
Did anyone from the media ask Steve Ortega whose brilliant idea it is to lease Union depot to Texas Tech Architectural School how they plan on getting 500 people in to Union Depot for class and who is paying the upkeep of the building and what did it cost us to move Mass transit to another location? Is it a dollar a year for twenty five years with an option to renew two more times? Oh well at least you didn’t tear it down.
Conflict of interest.
All I can say you will get more of the same if you do not go out and vote.
One is a businessman who earned his money the other is supported by business interests. Your choice.
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