The El Paso Times recently reported that the city of El Paso’s sales tax revenue has increased 2.3 percent for the year through October.
What they did not report was what Brutus mentioned the other day in Bad Bets.
While the increase in the sales tax collections is good news, the bad news is that the city is counting on (they have already budgeted) a 4.3 percent increase.
Hotel Occupancy Tax revenues are down one percent while the city told us to expect a three percent increase.
Remember that the city is now telling us that they will have to use general fund revenue to supplement bond payments for the ball park.
Unless things turn around we are looking at a revenue shortfall. What services will have to be cut or what fees will have to be increased?
There was a time when the reporters at the Times researched their articles instead of just printing what some government agency asked them to print.
Muckraker
elpasospeak 
Well then; they will just have to raise Taxes..Just like the Feds…redistribute the wealth in the name of eQuality of Life…personally I am Pro Life !
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Just remember that the sales tax revenue budget was developed by the same team that prepared all the cost estimates and revenue forecasts for the ballpark. Expect the same results.
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The City has difficulty forecasting anything correctly and Council swallows their numbers uncritically because they have an agenda to make. The stadium business case speaks for itself, though I suppose they blame Mountain Star for it. But it was the City staff responsibility to vet the numbers put before the public in Council, that have proven to been complete BS. I mean, even the city engineer stood in front of Council to say, “Me no Alamo; the numbers are from Mountain Star.”
There really needs to be an independent “BS detector” here that is not controlled by the City or Borderplex, one that can speak critically to the shit storm coming out of City Hall and the EP Times cabal regarding the stadium cost and financial impact.
Just wait until the wow effect wears off the AAA team and the Woody Folk come begging Council for free parking on game nights in order to make the rent payment. You heard it first here.
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If I’m not mistaken Mountainstar gets the parking fees (even on city owned spaces) already. The city gets 10 cents a ticket as I recall.
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I am reviewing the original business plan presented to CC on the day of the coup. It says that city gets 10 cents per game ticket surcharge and there is a slide (#28) that says the two parties will work together to develop a parking plan and city will provide parking in city-owned lots but the club retains revenues from that parking. It is really not clear to me what is meant by this, but if it means that Woody World also gets the cash from game parking on our property (Civic Center? Transit Center?), well that means our city staff and CC gave away even more than I originally believed. This seems to be confirmed in that parking revenue to the city is not included in the business case.
So I was mistaken above and I think Brutus is correct. However, the city also has to provide all game night ancillary services.
Why don’t they just designate the whole downtown as a Woody-Welfare Zone and give all city revenues there to M-S? It would save a lot number crunching.
What a deal our CC wrought for us! I’m wondering if the subsequent revision of the revenue agreement for the additional $10MM changed these terms. Does anyone know?
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Further research on the terms sheet presented at the coup does confirm that the city is obligated to provide 500 spaces for which the club pays $1.00 per space and keeps the rest at a price determined by the club There is a sharing arrangement over 500 spaces. So the club could ask for relief from the $1.00 rebate; wouldn’t surprise me.
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Mountainstar will have no trouble making the rent payment because the rent is ridiculously low. Firstly, Mountainstar keeps 100% of the stadium naming rights fees, which alone will cover more than half if not all of the annual base rent. Add in their income from the corporate suites and party rooms, which are one of the big reasons for the cost overruns, as well as in-park advertising signage and they are well on their way to profitability.
Equally important or more important, Mountainstar controls all events and usage of the stadium 24/7, 365 days a year, not just the baseball game days. They might have given the city a couple of token dates for city employee events or the like.
This is just another aspect of the one-sided terms of this agreement, which was not properly vetted or negotiated. When the city and media present numbers regarding revenue sharing, note they always focus on baseball games, which only account for approximately 70 days. This strongly implies that the city does not share in any of the ticket or parking revenue generated from concerts and other events that will be held at the stadium. If so, it has not been reported that way.
But let’s assume for a moment that Mountainstar is supposed to give the city a piece of all ticket sales, including non-baseball tickets, which I do not believe is the case. Depending on how the contract was written, Mountainstar’s owners could (and probably will) form a separate entity for non-baseball events and simply charge that entity rent. Presto! Non-baseball ticket revenue sharing goes away because it’s not Mountainstar selling the tickets. Or Mountainstar can give a third party like a concert or event promoter the use of the stadium and simply take a piece of the promoter’s gate. Presto! No need to share.
Your company or organization wants to rent the stadium for a company event or a youth baseball event? Mountainstar keeps 100% of that rental fee. Mountainstar, of course, will also get all the concessions and ancillary revenue generated during those non-baseball events and possibly the parking as well.
So worry not about Mountainstar. They will make a considerable amount of money the other 290 plus days in the year. As one of the carpetbaggers on their management team said, this isn’t about baseball.
Concerts and other such events will also cannibalize income the Sun Bowl, the Haskins, and other venues currently receive because Mountainstar or its concert promoter affiliate will now be competing to bring in the same talent and events. UTEP hasn’t voiced any concern because it can’t afford to upset two wealthy donors.
City management and council knowingly gave away unnecessary amounts of revenue to Hunt and Foster to help insure that Mountainstar will be profitable. Mountainstar dictated lopsided terms and Wilson, Studer and council gladly accepted. Call the actions of city management and council incompetency, selling out, deprivation of honest services, or whatever you like. Whatever you call it, it’s not right.
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It takes a pillage!
If you recall the initial batch of TORA emails showed Wilson basically taking dictation from the MS brigade and downloading it to the CC agenda for enactment. It makes you wonder why we pay for a city staff if this is the modus operandi, because the terms could not be more lopsided, as you point out. Nor could the business case.
I will have more to say on this matter in public forums going forward because returning to a strong mayor form of city organization is not the solution but, as we have seen, neither is a strong city manager the solution to prevent this kind of travesty that has split the community and destroyed the trust that citizens deserve to have in their government to protect their interests from legalized plunder by vested interests operating outside of the public eye. In the end, that will be Wilson’s legacy in this city, not the stadium.
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