The “penny swap” initiative proposed by the EPISD went to the voters and was approved.
Taxpayers will not pay more money because of this but the state will contribute about $9 million more to the district each year.
That means we will be paying down our bond debt by about $4 million less each year. According to a recent article in the Times:
The district is expected to pay off its debt on time despite the changes, EPISD interim Chief Financial Officer Art Martin told the El Paso Times this week.
If the voters had rejected the initiative their tax bills would have gone down. Instead they voted to keep their bills the same and take $9 million more a year from the state.
The district took a gamble when they unilaterally lowered the interest and sinking fund tax rate by the same amount that they wanted to raise the maintenance and operations rate. Now they are telling us that they will find a way to fund bringing debt payments back to their former rate.
We’ll see.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
If only property taxpayers voted and those affected by the proposed vote could not then these things would not keep passing. We are so STUPID.
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What is wrong, exactly, with keeping the same tax rate and getting nine million more from the state?
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