The city and county have another budget problem to contend with:
The Mexican peso dropped in value during that period.
Now Mexican shoppers have less money to spend in El Paso shops.
Will our local elected officials compensate for the revenue loss by spending more money?
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
MY . . .old business. . . many years ago . . went thru TWO (2) peso devaluations. Big ones.
Many companies closed in el paso because they relied on the peso or THEIR customers took pesos.
WE . . did not accept pesos . . . but OUR customers did accept pesos. (Other businesses).
So, OUR business went down about 40% in just a few weeks as OUR customers were no re-ordering what they usually did from us.
So, it does affect ALL businesses in el paso, even if they don’t accept pesos themselves.
Took 2-3 years to build the business back up.
Then, in 5 years. . . another big peso drop.
Same thing happened. Many NEW law firms started up and flourished handling all the bankruptcies.
Some law firms were now EXCLUSIVE and ONLY handled bankruptcies.
(Never seen that in el paso before.)
That’s WHERE and TIME FRAME that Tanzy Law Firm started and ONLY did bankruptcies.
No divorces, no traffic tickets, no wrecks. . . JUST bankruptcies.
THAT’s HOW MANY there were !
Talking to Jerry Tanzy . . . he said the bankruptcy councelors did not understand HOW a business could fail, if they did NOT and NEVER took pesos, and I explained it to him, since he was never in “retail” business.
If the Mexicans don’t have money, they can’t spend money.
No amount of advertising can fix that.
Some firms are now diversified from el paso business and also sell on the Internet so they receive Clean-Full-American bucks without interference from another country.
And the WILD income swings a peso drop brings.
They added more lanes (or people/officers) at the bridges to entice people to come over. That’s about all they could do.
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For el paso businesses. . . . .the thing we learned from all this above. . . is to ignore whatever amount of business that is generated thru/ from pesos.
Do not count on THAT income to remain steady.
Do not count on that income to carry the business.
Do not get into long term financing that relies on ANY segment of the peso going into their cash registers.
If a business’s parking lot. . . has a lot of cars with Mexico tags, and they staff and pay rent BASED on that peso income. . . their in big do-do when the peso falls.
(Companies from Out-of-Town move here. .and don’t understand . . . . and then sooner or later. . . here it comes . . . all of a sudden HALF of their customers have no money.)
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Now you have to realize, that many from Mexico spend US Dollars. Same thing.
Many convert their pesos . . . to . . . dollars at banks and so forth and they SPEND US Dollars. . . but have no more than what they had in pesos.
So, yes, Mexicans SPEND US Dollars. . . . and HAVE U.S. CASH, but only for the convenience of being able to shop.
Same thing.
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I’ve always wondered. . . WHY Juarez businesses don’t just start using ALL US Dollars in ALL of their businesses and ignore the peso altogether.
Converting all pesos into dollars IMMEDIATELY.
All savings. . . in US Dollars.
You know. . . something . ..tangible.
Oh well.
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Once people pay their mortgage and our sky-high El Paso property taxes, eat, put gas in their car, buy beer and pay their cable and cellphone bills, there’s little money left to buy anything else, especially if they also pay for their own health insurance. And if you really believe the government when it says that inflation has been low over the past 10 years, you’ve been spending your money on recreational drugs.
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The loss of Business in El Paso cannot be from the bad roads…
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Lack of Sunshine, me think?
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