Our city council has decided to allow themselves to increase our property taxes to just under the level where they would have to take the issue to the voters for approval.
What are they afraid of?
We all know.
We already have the second highest property tax rates (for homesteaded homes) among the largest 50 cities in the United States.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Not a THING we can do about it.
Each city administration has been doing the same thing for as long as I have been alive.
Not one thing. Vote them in – – – vote them out . . . .Nothing changes.
Once they get in there and find out HOW to get more donations for their campaign, it’s back to doing whatever the main campaign donors want.
It’s all self serving. Donations should not be allowed.
How can they NOT oblige their major campaign donors ?
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“How can they NOT oblige their campaign donors?” you ask.
JUST SAY NO!
But they don’t wanna say NO.
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The ONLY thing we can do . . is try and earn more . . or. . . leave town, and that leaves the NEXT person to try the same thing.
Earn more. . . so they can pay more property taxes.
The people from Out-Of-Town that don’t know what’s happening and look at their property taxes for their new $150,000 El Paso home and say: “Hey, well, that cheaper property taxes than our $400,000 house back in Dallas.”
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The City of El Paso will file bankruptcy in the next ten to fifteen years. Taxpayers are now and will continue to suffer from the terrible decisions of elected officials. El Paso will not be a city where many people can retire due to the onerous taxation. I suggest that anyone who can afford to leave do so quickly.
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This is my single biggest reason for entering the race for District 5. We have been lied to, sold pipe dreams that only enrich a few but put the whole city in jeopardy, and leave those who are the least able to afford inceases having to make choices between moving out of their homes, skipping meals or medicine, or trying to pay their taxes. WE DO DESERVE BETTER.
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Wanna know why our property taxes skyrocketed? Ask them…
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The problem is there is little commercial tax base to offset residential taxes. After NAFTA, the plants moved across the Rio, then to Asia. Borderplex continues to pursue an industrial recruitment strategy but we get low paying call center jobs that locate in existing buildings, i.e., the Amazon Economy.
They might get lucky and pick one off and 1,000 assembly-line jobs come here that will probably be filled by Mexicans. Young people increasingly are opting out of that 20th century mentality and taking charge of their own futures. Just now the best we can offer is about 25% college grads in our El Paso demographic, so not sure about attracting too many high IQ business. Fortunately, a few of those people are immensely creative.
Meanwhile, retail construction continues apace on the west side; not sure who is going to fill all that space. Probably stores from central and The Fountains, so it’s like pushing soap around the bathtub.
There is a kind of “underground” movement taking place in what might be called New Economy or Alternative Urbanism (my term), all under the radar of the powers that be and, really, not in competition with them. The PTB can go on subsidizing Woody’s new office and trolleys, the hotel-that-never-opens while others – mainly young people – take charge of their own lives outside the corporate rat race (that only the rats can win).
If you’re interested in what I’ve written here, you can check out authors like Charles Eisenstein, Paul Hawken, David Korten and organizations like The Next System Project and the New Story Hub to get a wider view.
I will write more about this in the near future, as I had a chance to live, study and teach in the new economy over the last three years (in BC and Seattle) and met and worked with some of these people.
My views and theories are still evolving, too.
Jerry Kurtyka
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Part of what is costing us money is all this “new economy” theory. Yes, younger generations are finding new ways to work. But US manufacturing is also resurging. Once the tariffs wars are over there will be more US mfg. I work with companies all over the US who are making facilities in much higher cost areas work. Factories with high levels of automation aren’t always cheaper in Mexico because their utilities are higher and it is hotter (meaning the factories must spend more on cooling). In other parts of the world (for instance Singapore/Indonesia/Malaysia), the juxtaposition of a highly developed workforce and low cost labor regions keeps a twin investment scenario in place. Our movers and shakers (and educators) don’t understand this dynamic and ignore the potential for the region. Two years ago I watched a factory opt to move to Mexico because we didn’t have the training mechanisms on this side of the border to develop the workers. In the base realignment we let the really high tech element move to Oklahoma, even though logistically we made better sense. In short, our focus on new and shiny is distracting us from old school opportunities that other communities are capitalizing on. We should be looking at what states like Michigan and Tennessee are doing to keep a diverse economy in place in terms of incentives and workforce education, and pushing the state of Texas to better capitalize on the potential of a community that bridges the border. Right now, Juarez has a better trained, more skilled tech workforce than we do.
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Part of what is costing us money is all this “new economy” theory.
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Please explain. How does this cost you money? Do you even know what it is?
I’ve watched young folks carve out niches for themselves in intentional communities based on permaculture principles, small scale organic farming, cooperatives, micro-business and micro-finance, natural building techniques, co-housing arrangements, tiny home development, nature-based schools, regenerative design in their communities…
No one’s getting rich but that’s not what they want; they want community and meaningful work. Admittedly, not for everyone, but they’re not going around like Paul and Woody asking you pay for their buildings and sports team.
One thing, too, if this is a trend (and I see it as such), it’s not good news for the consumption-focused economy. It’s about a “less is more” philosophy.
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So then explain why the taxes in El Paso are so high and what your fantasy “new economy” has done to save us? It seems like the “new economy” is partly people making themselves a living, which doesn’t help lower taxes at all but in many cases they demand tax-breaks and community concessions, which they often get (i.e. Amazon). Then there are wealthy people who convince politicians to have taxpayers pay for their hobby baseball team. Like Foster/Hunt. How has the baseball stadium helped El Paso at all? It hasn’t, and it won’t ever. It helped Foster/Hunt. Now the city is essentially hiring teams of lawyers to give them an arena, at taxpayer expense, of course. Stupidity and corruption are the primary drivers of the El Paso tax increases. Not anything to do with the economy or how people make money.
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See my first post.
I agree with everything you’ve said and new economy principles won’t stop what you’ve identified. If your mindset is “industrial”, then the solution to every problem has to be industrial – To keep taxes from growing we have to recruit more industrial tax base. The hamster cage economy, like Amazon.
Life is not industrial, it’s ecological and everybody lives “downstream.” You can have a good life, rich in community and meaningful work, debt free and never set foot in a factory, though you might have to take an occasional gig now and then for some extra cash. But then your work makes your lifestyle possible vs your work is your life, the industrial model that I lived mostly for 50 years. Ask yourself, “Is my current life sustainable for me? My grandchildren?”
Thousands of people, mostly young, are discovering this all over the world and it was my privilege to have met and lived with many of them the past three years.
Research it. I’ll write more later if Brutus lets me do so. BTW, this is happening here but I’m off to a seminar in Albuquerque and have to leave now.
El Paso? Lost cause.
Namaste
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You wrote that “the “new economy” is partly people making themselves a living, which doesn’t help lower taxes at all but in many cases they demand tax-breaks and community concessions”
The local person who are creating their own job is not getting tax breaks. The tax breaks and subsidies are going to the big boys and developers like Foster/Hunt and to companies from out of town that buy property or lease space from those big developers.
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I am stunned that you question the value and contributions of people who create their own jobs and “make a living” doing it. Some of those people are doing well enough to buy homes. Their businesses collect and pay sales tax. Their businesses buy goods and services and pay commercial rent. Those who are still renting an apartment are indirectly paying property tax on the apartment complex. Some have employees. You are so out of touch and so wrong.
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My point was that our community’s constant focus on new and shiny trends is what costs us money. We pay for consultants to tell us all the amenities we have to add to attract these new age folks. Much of the downtown renovation has been justified by explaining how it will stop the brain drain. At the same time we fail to attract businesses that could potentially employ the folks we have who aren’t going to be able to run their own businesses. Instead of looking for small and medium size industrial enterprises that might relocate here, we focus on big names that every large city in America wants. Those mindsets cost us money. I understand the new economy because my consulting business has paid off my house, vehicles and everything else I want. But after 40 years of working in or with factories, I also understand how much they bring to an economy in terms of employment opportunities and skills enhancements. My point was isn’t to discourage folks who want to be self-employed, it is simply to point out that failing to attract larger businesses that can provide opportunities for folks in our community who have limited opportunities now costs us money. The self-employed don’t need incentives—they just need a community that doesn’t tax them to death. SMEs who need to invest millions in a move do need to be recruited and in some cases incentivized. The attitude that this is old economy and those jobs are unattractive is what it is killing our local economy. And unfortunately the folks who sing the praises of living small are also the ones who expect taxpayers to build them subsidized lofts, parks and entertainment options. Those of us who like “things” not only help create jobs for folks who make and sell them, we also tend to fund our leisure time activities without taxpayer assistance.
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Election in NOVEMBER, more tax INCREASES by Mayor, Silly Council in JANUARY? So on Election DAY if “You” WE vote for even ONE person that is on Silly Council NOW or candidates who have said “What El Pasoans NEED is another tax INCREASE” or vote for Beto O’Rourke, then WE, YOU can only blame OURSELVES for ANOTHER tax INCREASE by THEM. “El Paso Forward”, really?? The ONLY thing that ever changes in El Taxo is the names of the politicians that TAKE from US, STEAL from US. NOTHING ever gets better for the PEOPLE. Tax, waste, spend, tax some MORE. Remember 6 November, El Pasoans, make YOUR vote SPEAK for US.
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Agree with The Oracle…low voter turnout and high voter Apathy will not change anything for the better….
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When you look at the campaign donations that the three CC incumbents that are running for re election have received from the building/construction-eestas, it’s “comforting” to know that even though they’re whores, at least they’re not cheap whores.
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