I have often struggled with understanding what is fair for communities that because of their geographical location have expenses that other cities do not have.
The communities that seem to be damaged every few years because of hurricanes or river flooding that get massive amounts of federal money to help rebuild raise the question of whether the rest of the nation should have to pay for something that could be avoided if the people in the zone moved to a safer place.
El Pasoan’s obviously live on the border with Mexico. We have burdens and challenges because of the international crossing situation. We are different from the communities that are damaged by natural disasters however. Our costs are directly related to the rules and regulations that our feral government imposes.
For years we have suffered economically because the bridge crossing lanes are not fully staffed by agents who thankfully strive to make certain that those coming across the bridges should be allowed to cross. I do not quarrel with the need to perform the checks. I question why we do not have enough agents to open all of the lanes, thus decreasing bridge crossing times and increasing commerce. Why don’t we get the money we need?
Insult to injury
Now we are told that we can have more agents if we will pay for them ourselves. We won’t be able to set their policies and procedures though.
Other parts of the country get hand-outs even though they can control their situation. We cannot control the agents but are told that if we pay more we can have what the central government should be providing already.
One of our city representatives was quoted in the El Paso Times the other day:
“As soon as the Congressman (O’Rourke) got into office, we begged him to help us with this and he has come through”
Begging?
We have to beg an elected official to do what is right for his district? We have to beg to be allowed to use our own money to fix a problem that the national government has imposed on us?
What on earth has happened here? Our elected officials think that the people need to beg? Our elected officials are so important and so much better than us that we need to beg?
Will they be passing a law that tells us how to worship them next?
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Let’s be honest. We choose to live here, just like people choose to continue to live in tornado alley or the hurricane zones. Businesses, including multinational companies, choose to conduct cross-border business because it’s cheaper than employing U.S. workers, including many El Pasoans who have seen their jobs move to Mexico.
The Federal government is already funding the staffing at the bridges, just not at the level many El Pasoans would like. Yet many of those asking for more Federal money are the same people who complain about Federal spending.
Even O’Rourke is saying that the prime beneficiaries are our local economy and 100,000 El Paso workers. He conveniently forgot to mention the benefits to Mexico and its people, who certainly avail themselves of our services and infrastructure, including schools, jobs, etc.
The real issue is who will foot the bill for the enhanced services. What annoys me is that the Mayor and others are already back-pedaling on the original concept of having those who use the bridge pay a little more. Hey, the bridge fee would still be less than half the price of admission to a movie or less than the price of a beer in many of our fine bars and restaurants.
The cost should be put on the shoulders of those who want to cross the bridge and who will benefit most from the proposed enhanced convenience. The cost should not be placed on El Pasoans as a whole. Whether its individuals crossing the bridge, local retail and restaurant establishments who cater to Mexico shoppers, or the businesses shipping goods across the border, the cost should be covered by some combination of those groups — not El Pasoans who neither use the bridge nor make money from Mexican visitors.
Should El Pasoans or taxpayers nationally shell out the money to make it even more profitable for companies to do business in Mexico? Or should those companies cover the cost?
It’s interesting how easily city management raises taxes on El Paso homeowners, hotels, etc., but they make a federal case (literally) out of a potential 50-cent increase at the bridge.
We could start covering the cost by clamping down on people who live and work in El Paso, yet refuse to register their vehicles in Texas. We could simply collect the outstanding traffic fines owed by Mexico drivers, which would probably fund this project for at least a year or two. In 2010, the city published a list of persons with outstanding warrants and there were easily 1,000+ persons with Mexico addresses. How about a per-employee tax on El Paso businesses, whose Mexico employees cross the bridge to work in El Paso?
Better yet, maybe we could just put a special tax on baseball tickets, which would be no different than taxing hotel guests to pay for the ballpark.
I foresee an increase in sales tax coming whether we like it or not.
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Could we ask the feds to fully staff the pay (non free) bridges and use whatever staff is left over to staff the free bridge?
That way many crossers would elect to pay to go through a faster bridge and those who want it for free would wait.
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Brutus, you old dog you. Interesting idea. If you’re proposing a reallocation of expense rather than an increase in costs, that would make more sense than just throwing money at the problem — at least as a first step. If there is one thing most people agree on, it’s that governments rarely, if ever, fix problems simply by throwing money at them. Generally, the problem remains and taxes have simply increased. And such mistakes are rarely reversed. That goes for our own local government. Maybe all the issues at the bridge could be fixed with a few old Rottweilers.
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The free bridge should remain a free bridge. Opening all the lanes (with more staffing) on the other bridges and new bridges will help but only temporarily. I think security is the issue since most of the wait times increased after 9/11 due to the increase in security checks. You will always have to wait especially during high traffic times, much like on the freeway…you’re always going to have times of gridlock and slow moving traffic even tho there’s no CBP officer anywhere in sight stopping you and checking you out. Isn’t there some law in physics or another science that we tend toward chaos? Even SuperBeto can’t beat that, but he’s play it to the hilt!
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Good point regarding some of the inherent limitations. Spending can often hit a point of diminishing returns. Even major companies like IBM, GE and FedEx realize that the it’s just not worth the cost to achieve that last 5% of efficiency or quality, speed, etc.
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I meant to write…”but he will play it to the hilt.”
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I wonder why we are thinking about opening ANOTHER bridge in Ysleta when we cannot properly staff the ones that are already in place…
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