The El Paso Times editorial of September 1, 2013 “Property tax path not sustainable” is remarkable.
The editorial points out “That increasing tax burden on homeowners is simply not sustainable. That $600 increase over the past decade was money that homeowners couldn’t spend on major purchases or for their children’s education. The tax increases have increased hardships on tens of thousands of families.”
Has something changed?
Does the Times suddenly really care about education?
I’m trying to figure out what the Times’ position is. They have supported the public spending spree we are witnessing, yet now they are saying that we cannot afford it. These explanations come to mind:
- They think that we need to stop the capital spending for a while. After all we have already bailed them out of the building they could not afford as part of the city hall destruction, ball park construction, temporary city facilities binge that has cost us well over 120 million dollars so far. Yes we tore down our children’s science museum and have no plans on the drawing board to replace it in the next three years, but all in all it is time to curtail the spending.
- Somehow they did not know that the public works spending would increase taxes. The editors recently learned that in order for governments to spend money they must collect taxes and fees. Now they have learned and realize that their rent is going to increase.
- They have decided to take their own advice. They wrote “First, the public should not stand for grandstanding on tax and spending issues…If an elected official is going to oppose tax increases, he or she also must identify specific spending reductions. El Paso cannot afford politicians who pander to various constituencies by supporting spending increases on the one hand while opposing taxes on the other.” The same goes for newspapers.
- September 1 in the newspaper world is like April 1 for the rest of us.
The editorial goes on to advise “Additionally, the governments should join together for taxpayer town halls, where the community can help identify spending priorities — and identify areas where local governments might cut back.”
Town halls?
Really? In a community where city council denied the citizens the right to have an election that they called for by petition? In a community where both city council and the El Paso Independent School District board of managers rearranged their agendas to make it more difficult for members of the public to be heard? In a community where city council has been spending tax payer money to deny public information requests that the attorney general of Texas wrote must be released? When we have a city manager who praises a city representative for being thoughtful and deliberate even though she considers her constituents?
Crazy ideas
In the spirit of the Times’ suggestion let me offer just a few ideas that the average “crazy” in town might offer:
- Don’t finish the Luther building. The city IT department is located somewhere else and we have not heard that it is not capable of functioning. There is already talk of building a new “municipal complex” in the next few years, thus wasting the money we are spending moving into temporary quarters.
- Build one new health clinic. The CEO of our county hospital told us that we would save 17 million dollars each year in emergency room costs if we built 150 million dollars worth of clinics. Why not build one clinic, see if the apportionate savings materialize and then use the savings to build the next clinic?
- Don’t let the city make the school district move their administration building, thus costing us at least 40 million dollars.
- Stop supporting athletics programs at the community college
- Stop the financing. Start using the savings from one project to fund the next one.
- Stop transferring the administration of public spending to non-elected groups like the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority.
- Get administrators in our local governments that care about the taxpayers.
Feel free to contribute your ideas through the comments mechanism of this blog. We may not be a town hall but at least your ideas will be shared with the public.
I read the post that Brutus will publish tomorrow. Don’t miss it. Our situation is not improving.
Eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty.
Cato
elpasospeak 
The EP Times’ hypocritical “grandstanding” on the matter of taxes was rather disingenuous. Both the news story and the editorial were shallow as was today’s article about El Paso wage levels. The editorial was pure rhetoric that lacked substance. The bold page one placements were intended to sell more papers.
The statement “That increasing tax burden on homeowners is simply not sustainable.” implies that the Times thinks more of the burden should be shifted to businesses. Next, they will be talking about the need to attract more businesses to El Paso, while failing to acknowledge the negative consequences high personal and commercial property taxes have on economic development efforts.
It’s unlikely that they will do the kind of ongoing in-depth reporting on taxes that they have done on the EPISD and local corruption. Partly because they lack courage and partly because they don’t have a staff capable of doing serious economic reporting.
With regard to town hall meetings, they also failed to acknowledge steps taken by council and management to limit public comment at city council meetings.
Tough times call for tough decisions. If you have a subscription to the Times, cancel it to help offset part of the increase in your tax bill.
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