Could it be true that our current mayor is so profoundly ignorant of the situation that he actually thinks the city gives the county part of our sales tax revenue?
According to recent news reports the city is saying that the “gifts” amount to an average of about $43 million per year.
For the moment let’s assume that it is okay for the mayor not to know about the Texas laws concerning this.
As the leader of our city wouldn’t you think that he would be familiar with the city budget? If the city actually gives the county the money we would see the expenditure in the city budget. No such entry exists.
The city doesn’t give the county any sales tax money.
The money is collected by the state and a portion of it is returned to the eligible local governments. Texas believes that the city is entitled to get 1%, the city bus system 1/2%, and the county 1/2%.
I would be embarrassed.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
I thought that was more likely the case, and I am not surprised. I think the fact is that the City is getting kind of desperate to find ways to get its hands on more and more of our money because they are finally realizing just how overextended this City really is. The fact is that they are scraping the bottom of the barrel, and that is the result of too many years of electing representatives from that same place.
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Oh, and by the way? That word should have been Mayoral. I am not sure, but I don’t think that mayorial is even a word.
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https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/mayorial
Thank you, however, for caring about our language.
Brutus
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You can only squeeze so much blood out of a rock. The City keeps giving away tax breaks and waivers to DTEP developers hoping that it will generate tax base to service the massive indebtedness, a kind of reverse Robin Hood policy that says if you give rich people more money they will hire you to mow their lawn.
The problem is that it is not really possible anymore to grow tax base from business, because business has dematerialized. Let’s say that Microsoft located 1,000 jobs here. They will rent cheap space in some industrial park like the many contact centers here. The idea of a factory with machinery and bricks-and-mortar capital is a chimera that you can chase all the way to China. No more.
You can still grow jobs, but don’t expect tax base to follow.
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The giveaways are not limited to DTEP developers. There are a lot more giveaways, but most benefit commercial developers and the tenants of those developers.
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“a kind of reverse Robin Hood policy that says if you give rich people more money they will hire you to mow their lawn.”
Quote of the day goes to Jerry K.
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Knowing the law and not knowing it would embarrass you BUT some people don’t know the debits go by the window and credits by the door. I would be embarrassed because I was so self confident that I don’t bother to check before opening mouth and inserting foot! Yes we deserve better but as long as there is a one party system in place in this city we will remain an over grown cow town run by puppet masters
Sent from my iPhone
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Of course he knows the facts. But he is making a point. The facts are that we are the only city in Texas giving the country part of the sales tax money. And Margo wants to make it an issue, because, as someone else wrote, the city is broke. He should make it an issue. The county is poorly run and taxpayers who reside in the city should not be paying for things such as infrastructure in unincorporated areas outside the city limits. Period. Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking Margo is uninformed.
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Wait a minute here! You (city hall watcher person) cannot have it both ways! On the one hand you say the county is poorly run, but before that you admitted that the City is broke! Would that not suggest that the City has been poorly run?! As for infrastructure in unincorporated areas outside the city limits, you do realize that El Paso City is located within the bounds of El Paso County, right?
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The mayor said on TV “…for whatever reason our city government in 1987 determined that they were going to give a quarter of our sales tax revenues to the county …”.
The city government did not make the decision, the voters did.
The money was never the city’s.
Brutus
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Many smart communities have merged county and city government to streamline government and eliminate duplication of many expenses.
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