We asked for it and we are going to get it.
El Paso’s voters approved transferring the responsibility of handling storm water issues from the city to our Public Service Board (PSB) at the May 9, 2009 election.
Of course we were told that the PSB would handle our money wisely. Prior to the election whatever funds were spent on storm water came from the city’s budget. When the transfer was made we did not see a corresponding decrease in property taxes. Instead we saw a monthly fee tacked on to our water bills. That was a double whammy.
The PSB web site today tells us that the money they collect is only used to handle the once or twice a year drainage problem. This is their statement about the fees: “They are used only for stormwater utility expenses”.
Quite to the contrary, Money down the drain showed us that $1.3 million is spent on “indirect cost allocation”. Another $1.7 million is spent on general and administrative expenses. They have borrowed about $66 million so far. They pay about $2.2 million a year in interest and another $2.5 million in principal.
Our reward
The Times reported the other day that the PSB now says that they need about $544 million to fix us up real good. If the borrowing numbers work out the same way as the previous $66 million, we will be paying another $18 million a year in interest and about $20.6 million toward principal reduction.
This represents a $600 million dollar tax increase before interest expense and “indirect allocations” that city council would have had to justify to the voters.
How do they propose that we pay for this? Their solution is an 8% increase in fees each year. Does anyone think that these fees will go down once the bonds are paid for in twenty or forty years?
Because we blindly believed these people we will now pay for it as part of our water bills and the city will get a free ride.
Normally I would say that we deserve better, but in this case we got what we asked for.
Brutus
elpasospeak 
The thing that bothers me most about El Paso doing mega-projects is that people in the public sector here who will manage these lack the competence to do so. So, after we’ve spent the $500MM, we’ll still have the problem and the scapegoating will start. And the goddam thing won’t work anyway.
If they really have to do it, then hire a global engineering firm to design and manage it, like CH2M or Brown & Root. Do not rely on local contractors or especially on staff. Just look at Country Club Road and ask yourself if you think that city and EPWU staff can handle a $500MM project.
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What I find outrageous about these added fees is that they are never temporary, always to go on in perpetuity!!! Why don’t they set an amount needed, collect the amount needed, end it, and say thank you, taxpayers? Now it’s all about creating “revenue streams” that are more like “tsunamis” when you total up the numbers.
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I wouldn’t blame the PSB all by itself for this. Your city council demanded that they complete a decades worth of work in a year. The post flood grandstanding opened up the doors for new taxes. If people would just understand that it rains and water runs downhill, we’d save a lot of money. However, people want to live at the bottom of a lake and bitch about the water.
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There are parts of the urban area that really should not have ever been built. If we had serious planning that looked at the drainage patterns of the Franklin Mountains, the city would look very different. And of course if we had leadership that understood the ecosystem we wouldn’t be growing cotton and pecans in this region and there might be some water in the “river.”
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My question is where are TxDOT and the other street planners in all this?
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PSB – Correct to Increase Fees
The PSB made the correct, though difficult, decision by voting 6 to 1 to increase water fees.
No one wants to pay more and no politicians want to vote for their constituents to pay higher fees. But water is our most valuable resource – we cannot live without it. How much are you willing to pay so that you, and future generations, can continue to live in the desert? El Pasoans currently pay much less for water than other arid cities in the southwest, and considerably less than most other cities in Texas. The fee plan approved by the PSB will actually reduce water bills for those who use the least – an excellent incentive to conserve our most precious resource.
The PSB realizes that, in order to have water in the future, we must build the infrastructure NOW. We cannot wait until our aquifers are dry. Waiting to develop needed new sources of water will cost more and leave us unprepared for continued drought.
El Pasoans and our elected officials need to focus on the future and support the PSB’s plans to insure we continue to have water.
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We need to remember the distinction between water fees and storm water fees.
Yes our water fees are low compared to other cities in the southwest. The PSB has done a good job in this area.
The storm water issue is a different matter however.
Brutus
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