If having high property taxes are our goal then maybe we should hire a city manager from one of the 6 large cities in the US that have higher property taxes than us. That’s right, according to the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence we had the 7th highest property taxes of the 50 largest cities in the US in 2013.
No income tax
Some would say that we rank so high because we have no income tax in Texas. The numbers show that our effective tax rate on a $150,000 home was 2.446%. Houston is in Texas and had a 1.896% rate. Seattle has no state income tax and had a 0.941% rate. The average rate of the 50 largest cities was 1.507%. That puts our tax rate at 162% of the 50 city average.
No income
U. S. News and World Report ranked metropolitan areas with the highest poverty rate in 2011. El Paso ranked 6th highest with 24.3 percent of our population living below the poverty line.
Temporary improvement
The 2009 Minnesota report put us in 6th place. The 2011 report showed us at 5th place and the 2012 numbers had us at 4th place. We went down to number 7 this year because we paid off some debt, not because we had lower taxes for maintenance and operations. Without voter approval our representatives in local governments have seen to it that the debt numbers will increase soon. Several of the recent tax and spend initiatives have not hit our tax bills yet. The county has approved $150 million for new medical clinics that the hospital chief executive thinks we need to “repurpose”, in other words spend some other way than what he sold the county on originally. We have the city hall destruction and the remodeling of the buildings they moved into. Street reconstruction bonds are being issued. The voters themselves approved over $500 million in quality of life bonds that have not been issued yet and thus are not part of our tax bills yet.
Operating income declining
EPISD is forecasting a $17 million dollar shortfall next year. It looks like they will go to the voters to get permission to have a tax increase. The various boards are trying to deal with the debts of the children’s hospital. Some say that the number is above $59 million. Every dollar that they do not pay is a dollar that the county hospital must absorb and that means higher property taxes for us.
The city just dealt with $7.35 million of required budget cuts because forecast revenue is short of what they wanted us to expect. Our chief financial officer is a finalist for the job of city manager. It looks like she may well be qualified to help us raise our tax rates.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Good information, and one is left wondering why our so-called leaders have failed (so dismally) to address these issues. Frankly, it is downright alarming, if not horribly disheartening, to know that our tax rates rank so high, when we have been one of the leaders of low income residents for so long. We do, indeed, deserve better, but that is not going to happen until we can get the “unwashed poor” to register and vote!
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City reps Cortney Niland and Ann Morgan Lilly, both of whom are on the CAD board, both just happened to be absent from the CAD board meeting Thursday night when the board discussed and voted on a new budget. What a coincidence. Interesting, huh? Could it be that they didn’t want to have to take a position on volatile issues that could cost them votes?
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Niland, our illustrious shoe-less wonder– was absent from a CAD Board meeting? Say it isn’t so! Wasn’t she the one beating her full-size bosom a couple of city clowncil meetings back, over Eddie Holguin’s absences? Can we say HYPOCRITE? (although, incompetent may be more appropriate)
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Yes, but you have a new ballpark that cost about four times the EPISD shortfall. You also will be getting a new west side hospital. Oh, I forgot. Tenet, which has annual revenues of $11 billion and is already making a handsome profit in El Paso, will get about $12 million in tax breaks related to the west side hospital. Large businesses and certain developers get tax breaks while individuals and small businesses are required to pay full fare.
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We deserve the government we elected. Sad but true.
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