City council says that they want to make El Paso a “destination” city with resorts and golf courses and such.
Do they realize that we have the highest hotel occupancy tax in the state? The rate is so high that our state legislature passed a law that will not allow us to raise it any more.
Does someone need to tell them that cost enters into the decision of where most of us go on vacation?
On the other hand taking more tax money from the citizens to build resorts for the benefit of business concerns would allow the city to collect more hotel occupancy tax money. That’s money they can use to build even more arenas and stadiums.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
El Paso will be a destination for people who want to see what rampant, ill-conceived government spending looks like. I have had enough, it looks like Midland or Taylor County will be my destination county. At least they have plenty of growth to offset property taxes and any sudden, government sponsored growth in the value of taxed properties. The major employers in El Paso are all taxing entities. That never was going to be a sustainable situation. The sooner El Paso moves into bankruptcy the better off taxpayers will be.
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Anonymous. I will be happy to help you pack. I’m tired of the capitalized letters and clumsy punctuation. You write like a meth freak with a fifth grade education. Come to think of it Midland/ Odessa should be a good fit for you. There’s plenty of meth, lots of employment opportunities and most of text is in capital letters with exclamation points. It’s a perfect fit for you. Problem solved.
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Tom, I think you responded to the wrong Anonymous. The one who mentioned Midland is definitely not the same one who constantly uses all caps and meth freak punctuation. The person who drives you nuts is higher up on the page.
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El Paso’s major tourism by far comes from Mexico because of the retail environment. Mexicans don’t come here for AAA baseball, nice downtown bars, or EPMA. They love the shopping.
The sooner city leadership admits to themselves that El Paso, because of several unique factors, will never become the kind of tourist destination they ignorantly believe we can be, the sooner we get around to building a city that we, the inhabitants and overtaxed citizens can stick around for and appreciate.
Local politicians like mayor Margo, Claudia Perez, Michiel Noe and Cassandra Brown have insatiable appetites for our tax dollars and love to pickpocket our bank accounts every chance they get so they can lavish OUR MONEY on THEIR FINANCIERS.
The wealthy special interests and investors get the benefit while we get the shaft.
Check out my indictment of Claudia Perez and Noe on the following blogpost: Two-headed Tax Beast and it Eats our Hard-Earned Dollars
http://www.judburgess.com/james-no-bond-blog/2017/3/29/and-it-eats-our-hard-earned-dollars
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El Paso a typical Democrat regime. The politicians, Public Officials “Do” for the idle rich, influential here. THEY have NO consideration for US, the people who are FORCED to pay for all THEY want. And THEY can’t even meet the BASIC needs, necessities of the city, the people. NOBODY comes to El Taxo to vacation, except people from Mexico. El Paso is just “The Pass” on the Interstate, on the way to some where else.. A lunch, gas, overnight stop. But Gas, motels are CHEAPER in Las Cruces, Van Horn, Midland, so people just keep going. East, West, North. “Nothing to see or do here, just keep moving”. Just go downtown and LOOK. More stores, shops, buildings CLOSED than OPEN. “Yard sales” out on the sidewalks. Blowing trash and homeless asleep in doorways. Tax, waste, spend, tax some MORE. That is ALL WE GET in El Taxo.
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Stop with the partisan blame. People on both sides share plenty of the blame. While you’re engaged in partisan bickering, both dems and republicans are taking your money.
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“Stop partisan blame”?? Exactly who do you think is IN CHARGE of POLITICS in El Taxo?? You trying to make people believe there is another Party making decisions here for US, other than Democrats?? And that those “Other people” are responsible for all the stupid decisions, no jobs, no economy, outrageous taxes, fabricated, inflated home “Values” to support the tax base? The City Council is Democrats, the County Commissioners, Democrats. State Representatives in Austin, Democrats, U.S. Representative, Democrat. WHO in your mind are Republicans, Independents here? NO Republican, Independent could get elected street sweeper here. Everybody is forced to feed the tax, waste, spend , tax some more of the politicians here, but Republicans are not REPRESENTED by anybody. “Partisan” means there is someone else to have another “Opinion”, make decisions. There isn’t.
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The Mayor is now a Republican. Independent is right, the enemy isn’t the political parties–it is the donors to both sides who are putting their folks in office by outspending any other contenders. We have a friends and family clique (think Paso del Norte REIT, construction companies and liberal progressive social architect attorneys) who have a vision that lines their pockets at taxpayer expense. That said, lack of diversity in voting patterns makes it easy for them to do that. Many of the races are decided in Dem primaries because there is no Republican challenger. If voting patterns were less predictable the donor class would at least have to fund candidates in two primaries.
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HELP Brutus HELP
If a person wants to sign the petition of that Westside group against the TIRZ, how can they get in contact with them?
In addition, is there any website people can go to, where the petition can simply be copied, so all one would have to do is sign it and mail it to that group?
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Great idea about Petitions. Nobody has been around with them. Have only heard about them on the News. Have been here more than 25 years and I will sign ANYTHING that helps to stop ANOTHER tax, waste, spend, tax some more, ROBBERY by the local useless politicos. THEY don’t REPRESENT US. THEY only REPRESENT themselves and whatever THEY can get or TAKE from US.
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Try Don Baumgardt who is a member of the Open Space Advisory Board…Sharon Miles-Bonart is the chair and I believe has copies… Don runs Piñata Publishing..
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Texas is and has been for some time a destination for taxed-to-death Californians. But I doubt they’ll want to stop here when Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas beckon.
It is my belief that we are what we are – The Big Burrito; the American face of Mexico – and we should work with that to make a good city for the people already here, not tourists.
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How about the other side of the equation by LESS Spending ??
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