It should not surprise us that the numbers recently released by the city show that their previous revenue projections relating to the ballpark were wrong.
Hotel occupancy taxes, sales taxes, and parking revenue were all over estimated. Even the “crazies” might see how one number was missed, but all three?
One number came in better than expected–ticket sales. More people attended games than they projected. That is good.
Why then were parking revenues below expectations? Did someone game that revenue source or was the original number miscomputed? A city official promised to look into that.
The net effect is that the city had to take almost one million dollars out of the general fund to pay interest on the bonds that we were told would be self sustaining.
The general fund is made up of property and sales taxes as well as fees and fines. Last year city council had to levy a multi-million dollar fee against water bills to cover a shortfall in the city budget.
Texas state law does not allow the city to pay for the ballpark with property taxes because of the way the election was held. Yet the city is using general fund money to do it.
Some will try to argue that the specific part of the general fund they are using does not come from property taxes. That is like trying to argue that your spouse’s paycheck does not contribute to your mortgage payment.
The facts are in. There should be consequences for the people that did this to us. If laws have not been violated then maybe at the least we should publicly shun the former city employees that did this to us.
What will the city council do about this?
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
What will the city council do about this? Nothing.
Only crazies would think that it should do something.
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The Times online story also included a chart that compared actual 2014 revenues to the original projections. It shows that the city planned all along to subsidize Mountainstar’s operations. Their 2013 projection was more than $600,000, which is considerably less tha a million dollars. In their rush to force this on us, city management and city council never made it clear to the public that we would have to sudsidize operating expenses. They focused only on the cost to build the ballpark. There has never been any talk about the subsidy until now and it’s still being downlplayed.
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Any one believing the pie in the sky projections so many years out have to be crazies themselves since the city of El Paso has failed to meet even short term projections. El Paso has even one group of ball park supporters claiming the ball park has already been paid for.
Sorry El Paso you guys were played by members of the CC and will put money on it that you will reelect these clowns.
The most resent red flag should have been when members of the CC charged your city manager with fear mongering when they were told the city has tax short falls and deficit.
Why have a city manager if you are not going to listen to him when he try’s to tell the CC that they have some real serious finical problems. Yep here is where the real crazies can be found in your City government and with help from their lunatic fringe supporters.
And the band played on!
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The whole thing comes down to how it was done, not what it is. It was a financial coup d’etat, but it is a pretty good stadium and no one can argue that it has been very popular here.
So they forecast a $600K subsidy and it was really $900K, a $300K difference. Big deal; that is a 1/2% margin of error on a $60MM project. Could I have done better? I doubt it.
I don’t know what to think anymore until I saw Cortney Niland’s $60K campaign chest that tells me this is going to happen again, because those donors expect to get their money’s worth. Then again, who in Dist #8 stood up to challenge her candidacy – a total unknown with zero experience in public life. She lives in a pretty good neighborhood, so why didn’t one of the country club crowd (many of whom can’t stand her) run for the office? Look at the field in Dist #1. There are a lot of good potential candidates. So, why not Dist #8?
Simple answer: no one gives a shit. You get the government you elect.
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Jerry when the majority of voters stay home then a very small voting block gets to decide the future of the city.
The complaint is that this was not to cost the city more than what would be covered by the hot tax and not take from the general fund which the so called crazies tried to tell the El Paso voters it was non sense that was being sold to them.
The city can’t even cover the yearly cost of your fire and police through taxes right now.
This has been one scam after another, the chicken are coming home to roost and some do not like the truth to be told.
This white elephant ball park was sold in the ignorant belief that it would draw business to El Paso which would increase tax revenues it has not. Millions on Millions of tax dollars have been spent on downtown for nearly two decades at the neglect of the rest of the city and these chicken are coming home to roost but you have members of the CC that just look the other way to these facts.
Willing to put money on it in 8 to 10 years this will all be in the toilet and just another albatross around the neck of the tax payers of El Paso. If there is any major down turn in the U.S. economy the City of El Paso is screwed. If in the next election cycle the Democrats take back Congress and they start cutting the military El Paso is in big trouble.
The City of El Paso is and has been living beyond it’s means for at least a decade but ignorance of this fact seems to be the standard for this community and your elected officials.
This is why I got out many years ago and would never move back into the City of El Paso and do as little business as I have to in El Paso.
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“…when the majority of voters stay home then a very small voting block gets to decide the future of the city.”
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Yes, that is exactly what they do and pissing and moaning about it won’t change a thing. The people who pay for the CC’s campaigns know this and use it. They want to be here because they can control what happens here that affects their interests.
I use to tell my students when I was teaching in the business school at University of Phoenix that they should not tether their future to El Paso but be open to what other cities could provide them by way of career opportunity.
I certainly hope that my residence here will change in the future, as well.
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Jerry that is why I do not feel real bad for the majority in El Paso that expected others to do their duty to their own governance. For me I will not have to pay for this non sense but I do have family and friends that will have to eat this crap. Jerry I agree with what you told your student. Several of my younger extended family members got their degrees and left El Paso never looking back and would never move back to El Paso to live.
The sad part is that the city leadership as zero opinions but to cut staff, services and raise taxes and property appraisal value to cover the tax short fall and mounting debt. Then add on all the other tax entities increases and there is nothing but big trouble for El Paso and those that foot the bills the tax payers,
If you concerned about the city what until the county and UMC beats us with their big tax club in the fall then watch the pissing and moaning get even louder.
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El Paso seems right now to run on two unsustainable industries – Fort Bliss and Western Refining. At some point we will run out of money to finance endless wars, and fossil fuel usage will decline. Then what? UTEP alone cannot carry the load.
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Western is no friend of the city. Foster moved Western’s white collars jobs to Arizona, while trying to convince us to spend tax dollars to subsidize his downtown redevelopment kingdom in hopes that other companies, but not his own, will locate here. Western is basically allowed to set its on property tax rate for the local refinery property because local government does not have the financial resources to fight Western in court.
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I agree with the how versus what, but with all due respect, you’re beginning to sound like a city employee. Only $300,000 …… no big deal?
You rounded the $977,000 down to $900,000, rather than up to $1 million. You’re also mixing capital expenditures with recurring annual subsidies to calculate 1/2% error factor. It’s more than a 55% margin of error on the subsidy portion which just keeps on giving to Mountainstar year after year. The actual dollar amount will also go up with inflation.
Over a period of 20 years, the total subsidy will easily exceed $20 million, especially when we start subsidizing the operating expenses for non-baseball events like concerts that will be held at the ballpark.
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They told us that the project would not cost us a penny. Hotel occupancy taxes were to pay the bill. Not only have we ended up subsidizing the operations costs (police, water, and who knows what else) but now we are having to subsidize the capital costs.
Brutus
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That is an accurate statement although I cannot find it in the original 2012 council documents. However, I do have a fact sheet that was presented to CC to justify the $12.1MM additional expense and the new terms with MS. It specifically states that:
$48.7 million would be repaid through Hotel Occupancy (HOT) Tax Revenues, as approved by voters in November 2012.
$12.1 million would be repaid with MountainStar’s additional funding commitment.
$0 would be repaid by El Paso property taxpayers.
But this seems to apply to only initial capital costs, not operating costs.
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It was interesting to see that Joe Muench lauded the county for not having any likely tax increases in the near future. He (and our former city manager) is one of the many folks who labeled us as “crazies” for wanting our city to be fiscally responsible. The ballpark, coupled with the razing of City Hall and the Insights Museum, has created the fiscal monster that we “crazies” foresaw in the offing. Yes, Cortney Niland will undoubtedly get re-elected for another term as she has the firm backing of the elitists in town (who are benefitting from the ballpark) as the new mayor and new council members are left holding the wet paper bag filled with the debt we crazies predicted. Ms. Niland, the former mayor, former city manager, Mr. Ortega, and other progressives who pushed this white elephant on the taxpayers should be ostracized within the community. In the meantime, Mountainstar Sports is laughing all the way to the bank. White collar crime is alive and well in El Paso.
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One item that is not mentioned is the replacement of city hall, eventually it will be built. Those monies have to be included, the old city hall was paid for.
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Yes, and that will cost a lot. The prior city financial group had been saying that the three buildings that they had to remodel will be sold at a profit.
One rumor is that they want to build it where the downtown jail is. Some people suggest that they leave the cells and just put city offices in the cells.
Brutus
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City hall and the city council chambers are reality distortion zones. Assuming they can find buyers for those buildings, the way city management and council will calculate “profit” will be suspect. Their calc will probably not use the true cost basis, including what they spent on the buildings after they purchased them. They will also probably conveniently forget to substract the realtor’s commission.
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For years I have heard that the ideal place is the block just south of the jail. The city, county and EPISD own that land and buildings. They want to call this area the Goverment district. The location does make sense.
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Nothing new here. Move along. We got what we deserve. Nobody bothers to vote? That tiny majority gets to put it to all of us.
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