elpasospeak

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

Well I’ve ridden the Brio a few times now.

The experiences were pleasant and I intend to continue using the Brio when I need to go downtown.

I left the Coronado shopping center at about 7:15 in the morning the other day and arrived at the library, ball park stop 15 minutes later.

The bus was clean, the operator was friendly and there was plenty of space for me.

I was surprised by a few things.

Normal buses try to keep to a rigid schedule.  If a bus is supposed to be at a stop at 7:10 and it gets there early we will often see the bus idling and waiting so that it does not get ahead of schedule.  The Brio buses do not do that.  With another bus coming only 10 minutes later during peak times, the Brio does not need to slow down.  The driver passed empty stops and drove at full speed toward downtown.

The Brio bus will also move into the center lane on Mesa in order to pass a regular bus that is idling to keep on schedule.

I returned at about 3:30 that afternoon.  Traffic on Mesa was pretty heavy but the trip only took 20 minutes, not much slower than taking my own car.

The practicality of the money we have spent and the inconvenience we have endured during construction are a different matter — we will address that in another post.

We have spent the money and built the system.  I see no reason to boycott the Brio now that it is in operation.

Quite simply sometimes the Brio is a better alternative than driving.

Brutus

Our city attorney is having difficulty with some of the members of council.

Evidently some of the members want to change the manner in which her performance is reviewed.

She says that the new methods would not be consistent with her contract and has asked council to please respect her contract.

I agree with her.

It would also be nice if she and the team in place before our new city manager came in would have respected the contracts of the city’s vendors.

The old group strong armed and fired vendors with valid contracts frequently.

There are a whole bunch of companies that simply will no longer do business with the city.

We deserve better

Brutus