This slide came from a presentation at a “special” city council meeting:
If the departments are correct we should be budgeting just under nine million dollars a year to replace the vehicles and equipment that our fire and police departments use.
Ask your city representative and the mayor how much money is in the new city budget to help replace this equipment.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Or, how much has been in past budgets, for who knows how many years?
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One minute people say they want this stuff in the budget. The next minute they’re pissed when people at city hall say they need to issue debt and raise taxes to pay for it, partly because Wilson and others didn’t budget enough for it in the past. Which way do people want it? And what capital expenditures are they willing to trade off to get it in the budget?
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How about not building an “arena” for $180 million and counting, when there has never been an explanation as to why it is needed? If for soccer, how about letting the team owners fix up Cohen Stadium?
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Like it or not, the Quality of Life Bond that included a multipurpose facility was passed by the voters. The planned facility (aka arena) wasn’t explained in detail before the vote, yet more than half of voters still cast a vote in favor of the bond and all that it included. Insane, right?! So, overtaxed voters have to share the blame for higher taxes and those of us who voted NO need to come to grips with the fact that our fellow citizens, not just politicians and special interests, are partly to blame for the QOL fiasco. I don’t care where the soccer stadium is built as long as the team owners pays 100% of the cost.
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Those QoL projects were completely misrepresented to the voters. Each of the projects was under-budgeted. The impact on our tax bills was minimized. And the economic development effect was overstated. I think the voters should have a chance to revisit the bonds now that we know the truth.
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Agreed, but attacking and blaming current individuals for the sins of their predecessors is not the way to get their support. I don’t know anyone in the community who has invested the time and money to determine what is required legally to reverse that 2012 vote.
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I don’t believe that there is a way to reverse the vote in Texas.
Council can simply refuse to start the projects.
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I love the concept of didn’t budget enough for it. None of these projects were fully outlined. It was a list of stuff. It would have been possible to build most of this stuff at those numbers if each project had been scaled to those numbers but the folks planning each project decided to spend more and increase the scale way beyond the budgeted amount. The issue isn’t “the budget was big enough.” It is that our city leaders don’t understand how to live within our means and feel it is okay to spend as wildly as they want.
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The way you live within your means is to have a budget. The way you budget enough for one item is to budget less for other items. So, yes, while Wilson was focused on helping a few, she and others failed to budget enough for important stuff like streets and other important things. They also promised budgeted X dollars for things that they knew full well would cost more. The ballpark is a perfect example. The chickens have come home to roost and the mayor is going to wish he had never run for office.
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