According to a recent article in the Times our city council is now telling the public that part of the reason they want to raise our city property taxes by 6.4% is to build a memorial to the people who died in the recent Walmart shooting.
Let the public do it
If a memorial is to be built is should be funded by donations from the public and from Walmart.
The city ought to tell Walmart that if they don’t contribute we will build the memorial as close to the front door of that Walmart as we can.
Contribute and we will put the memorial somewhere else.
Lower the increase
According to the article up to four million dollars of the tax increase would be put into a fund that could help fund the memorial.
Let the public build the memorial.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
According to the news, $5 million has already been contributed to the victims’ fund and Walmart has plans to build a memorial inside their store as part of their remodel. I honestly think El Paso has been strong enough without adding a $4 million memorial from the kids with credit cards on city council. I agree that a privately funded effort would be appropriate, but no tax dollars should be spent on this.
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I agree that any memorial should be community founded and supported. I disagree with extorting any public or private company (or any individual) into paying for or participating in any private endeavor. Wal Mart did not hire the gunmen nor did they pay his transportation costs, they are a victim of the gunman.
The people who were killed by the gunman may have claims against Wal Mart but anyone wishing to “honor” victims through extortion would have no claim against Wal Mart or anyone else to force payment or participation in their project.
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Using the deaths of more than 20 people to justify a tax increase is one of the sleazier things that an El Paso city council has ever done. There is no guarantee that the added $4 million in taxes will be used for a memorial. This is just another shameless money grab. If they do build a memorial and if they’re asking for $4 million to do it, that means the cost will really be $8 million and it will not be completed for another ten years.
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Multi millions of private donations have already been collected. Public funding is just another display of elected officials virtue signaling on others people’s dime.
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🤬🤬🤬
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I suspect it’s an excuse rather than a virtue signal.
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Some people/ some families/ names. . . may NOT want to be on a memorial.
There are STILL people in the hospital that could die of complications.
Even those released from the hospital may have shortened lives.
Money grab by the city while people can’t think straight.
Like a cemetery selling a family plots for every person in the family after ONE family member passes and the family can’t think properly, the cemetery salesman does his “guilt job” on them.
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Exactly right. Walmart is a multi-BILLION$$$$ Corporation. El Pasoans contribute MILLIONS$$$$ to them everyday. Walmart provides a service, affordable products to WORKING people across the country. America likes Walmart. 2-3,000 shoppers were in that store that day in El Paso. In appreciation of their customers, in MEMORIAL to those who died, lost family, I think that the Walton Family would most certainly build a Memorial at the store. This tax increase by these low-life politicians, for THIS “cause”, is as ill-conceived as the LIE, ” the tax INCREASE is for the Police”. What Police, where are THEY?? Increase prices at the ball field. Make Police jobs there an OFF-DUTY job for Police, paid by Mountain Star Sports, the idle RICH, that these politicians OWE.
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Walmart has already announced that it will build a memorial in the store as part of its relayout activities. They aren’t the bad guys here. They’ve also been extremely understanding about the over the top memorial in their parking lot — which is starting to get neighborhood complaints from the smell of rotting flower arrangements. This community and folks around the nation have come together supporting the victims. But at some point when folks keep demanding more and more (Walmart needs to build a memorial outside the store, taxpayers need to provide a $4 mil memorial fund, etc), it turns a tragedy into a greedy money grab and the money stops. The living victims need the fund that folks have generously contributed to because their injuries or loss of family members will have lifelong financial consequences. If the public wants to contribute voluntarily to an additional memorial beyond that, that’s fine. But demanding that folks involuntarily pay for a memorial is wrong. I haven’t heard a single victim’s family speaking out in the news about the need for a large memorial. The folks talking this up are politicians and the local love to spend other people’s money activists. Personally I think the shooter’s parents ought to fund the memorial. His mother was concerned enough about his interest in fire power that she called the police. Their attitude of “it’s not our problem” is pretty offensive.
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An excellent comment. I forgot to say that Walmart was, is already planning to build a Memorial to the Lost, inside the store, during the “Re–work” of the store lay out. The politicians of El Taxo will never let a reason, EXCUSE to increase the PEOPLES taxes, go by. Do the Mayor, Clown Council, Tommy Gonzales , Juan Cabrera all pay TAXES here? Do they along with the idle rich have tax “Exemptions”? The politicians here are just “Opportunists” preying on the loss, the heart break of El Paso. These politicians are the ones that have turned the Police into a “Re-action Force”, with few to no Police working the streets, neighborhoods. The station parking lots are full of vehicles, buying new ones, that will not be used. The MILLIONS$$$ in tax increases are for the Police. The BILLIONS$$$ in Bonds at EPISD are “For the children”. They’ve got to have an “Excuse, without justification”. THEY take all they can get from US.
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Better still:
Every shyster attorney who sues Walmart on behalf of the injured party should have to pay 50% of the. Amount that receive from the settlement of their client. Not from the client.
On in particular received over $3 million pay out from Levi Strauss and Levi Strauss left town.
The veiled memorials from attorneys in full page ads are disgusting.
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There is a Crime Victims Memorial at the park next to the Yarbrough library.
Victims names are added to the wall yearly.
I believe that it is funded at least in part by donations.
I also saw a report that the private sector was raising funds for a memorial for the mass shooting victims
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Local heros who were killed in wars have a simple plaque in downtown parks. Should those killed and wounded at Walmart have more?
An expensive memorial will not undo the damage done to the victims or the city nor will it make us feel any better.
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Personally, although I don’t know what their motives really are, I think building a memorial inside the store is in poor taste. That’s sort of like building a McDonalds in the lobby of a funeral home. The memorial needs to be outdoors and in a place that can be maintained green and serene. It should be a place where there can be a resting spot for reflection and remembrance.
The park on the other side of Viscount from Walmart is a perfect place. The city could donate a parcel of the park where a privately funded memorial can be build and then maintain it as part of the park so there would be no additional tax money needed and no tax money lost due to taking a private property off the tax rolls.
It’s really too bad that our various branches of government always want to jump in and “give” us something paid for with our own money in order to buy our votes in future elections.
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I think Walmart’s goal was to tastefully acknowledge the victims in a way where they wouldn’t end up with a committee of politicians and activists fighting over where it was located, how much was spent and how it looked. The reality is that the only ones who should get a vote are the living victims and the families of those who died, because basically after the media mentions die down, they are likely the only ones who will visit or remember it. I agree with those who point out that memorials for veterans and crime victims are not nearly as elaborate as what everyone wants to do here in the emotion of this moment. It is also interesting that the thousands of people gunned down as a result of narco violence in our sister city (some of whom are likely US citizens) haven’t been specifically memorialized on either side of the border. We are better off letting private efforts dictate what is done and let the victims or their families drive the vision and location. This rush to spend taxpayer money on a tragedy that is huge now, but relatively minor in the bigger scheme of things is another waste of money.
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