The city is required to make certain disclosures when it intends to issue certificates of obligation.
This came from their notice of intent to issue $100 million in certificates of obligation:
In accordance with Texas Local Government Code Section 271.049, (i) the current principal amount of all of the City’s outstanding public securities secured by and payable from ad valorem taxes is $1,189,489,193.84; (ii) the current combined principal and
interest required to pay all of the City’s outstanding public securities secured by and payable from ad valorem taxes on time and in full is $1,818,279,445.84; (iii) the estimated combined principal and interest required to pay the certificates of obligation to be authorized on time and in full is $173,780,312.50; (iv) the maximum interest rate for the certificates may not exceed the maximum legal interest rate; and (v) the maximum maturity date of the certificates to be authorized is August 15, 2045.
According to the city the $100 million will turn into $174 million by the time we pay the bonds off.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Let’s put this into perspective. If I bought a car and borrowed $20,000 for five years at 5%, I would end up paying back $22,645 (someone can check my math). The 25 year period of the city’s bonds is a much longer time frame and costs us tax payed a lot more, even if the interest rates are low.
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File this under “duh”. Of course borrowing money incurs a cost.
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The point, guys, is that if you divide that total cost of 1.8 billion by the number of tax payers, that leaves us holding a very heavy bag. Take a look at this data from the state: https://www.statedatalab.org/state_data_and_comparisons/city/elpaso
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I just got through reading an article in The Texas Tribune about the homeless in Texas. In there it said and I don’t know how they came up with the number. But, it says El Paso has 809 homeless people. I look at all the Bonds, COs, GOs and Nontaxable Bonds which have to be paid through property taxes that the city is releasing all the time and I thought what would the homeless rate be in El Paso in the next 5 or 6 years or even the number who will have to leave El Paso because they can’t afford to live here. But then I thought about the low income housing that the city wants to build and I said we have no worries we can move to low income housing and let El Paso taxpayers support us.
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It is a good idea. If you can’t beat them, maybe we should join them? Use the lack of voter turnout and tyranny to advantage now that the city government has evolved into a bloated leech out for every dollar it can absorb. If the wealthy want ballparks, pay for them yourselves. Why would people travel to El Paso to see a bunch of bloated leeches eating cheese wiz nachos and watching baseball paid for by the poor? Pathetic
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