The city of El Paso charges a franchise fee to two of it’s own departments.
Both El Paso Water and the Environmental Services department (garbage) are assessed a fee.
The water and garbage customers see the fee getting passed on to them in the form of a bill.
The city powers maintain that the franchise fees are imposed to compensate the city for the use of city streets.
These are streets that we have paid for and are also paying to maintain.
The fees are not franchise fees, they are taxes.
The city has a few other departments that generate revenue.
Will we see them getting charged franchise fees?
Sun Metro buses travel more on city streets than any other entity.
El Paso Fire Department ambulances travel on city streets and generate revenue for the city. How are they different than the water and trash departments?
All of these charges are wrong, they are simply taxes that the city would not normally be allowed to charge because of caps on their rate of tax increase.
The charges should be challenged in court.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
“The charges should be challenged in court.”
Have at it. Nothing stopping you.
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This will get worse in the coming years, they have vastly overspent in the last 20 years and now need new streams of income to help pay the credit cards.
Bankruptcy is in El Paso’s future, and an arena will speed that process up dramatically.
This also explains why socialism is becoming popular among certain political parties, it offers a way to reset debt through confiscation and government intervention, covering up the misdeeds and misspending by those very same politicians.
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Time for you to learn some new lyrics…your comments are boringly predictable. Cheers.
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Wow, got a rise out of one of the local politicians, Socialist(?) El Taxo politicians either ignore or just can’t handle the TRUTH.
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Sorry, you guessed wrong…not a politician and not a socialist. End of story.
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if you aren’t a socialist then why does that bother you? are you denying that the number two democrat front-runner for president is an avowed, lifetime socialist? not to mention the young democrats like aoc. the democrat party is eat up with socialists, but you seem to think that talking about it is an issue. if they can openly be socialists why does it bother you if someone acknowledges that fact?
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Sadly both parties are complicit. We made a conscious decision under Bush to cut interest rates to fund the 9/11 infrastructure rebuild. Every time the Fed starts to creep rates back up, the economy slows in part because state and local governments have been taking out low interest bonds like there is no tomorrow. A return to pre-9/11 Fed rates would bankrupt more than EP. Virtually all the debt EP carries today is due to the “bonds are cheap” frenzy following the 9/11 interest rate cuts. The main difference between Dems and the GOP is that the Dems are moving to higher taxes and a socialist agenda as their solution (we’ll be your caretaker) and the GOP is moving toward a stimulate the economy to decrease the deficit (encourage more self sufficiency and economic growth) solution. Neither is perfect. In EP we need to wake up and stop taking out debt for nice to have projects like the arena. The low interest rates aren’t sustainable. Sooner or later, they will rise.
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Nice to have projects like the arena? What’s nice about wrecking an historic neighborhood for a sports arena that will be empty most of the time?…the only beneficiaries will be the folks who get the $250 million to construct the arena…
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“There’s no telling the future and little understanding of what’s gone on before.” – Hunter S. Thompson
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I’m not using nice to have as a compliment. None of the Q of L foolishness was needed in a community whose per capita wages were as low as ours. The promised economic development hasn’t happened. Our taxes are out of control and the only folks benefiting are Foster and Hunt, other developers and the politicians they have on their payroll in one form or another. The only thing we’ve changed with all this spending is to shrink the amount of disposable income the average El Pasoan has.
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“the GOP is moving toward a stimulate the economy to decrease the deficit” Hahaha That’s a good one! Just because Pubs *say* it doesn’t mean it’s true. Also, “socialist agenda…(we’ll be your caretaker)” is false. The “socialist agenda” is to use taxes for all Americans. Rather than using taxes to subsidize corporations and out of control defense spending.
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Very well stated!
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Margo and the Clown Council should be charged for the chairs, SPACE they take up on their THRONES at Silly Hall.. NONE of THEM represent the PEOPLE. THEY are just there for the deals they can make, the corruption and whatever THEY can take from the PEOPLE. Not ONE of these minions, Margo should be left after the next election. And a new Mayor, Council should fire Tommy Gonzalez and all his “Assistants”. But then when the PEOPLE don’t vote, the idle RICH will continue to BUY the elections and OWN the politicians.
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Flawlessly stated!
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I have to admit my confusion by this blog’s seeming focus on government spending yet it endorses public school spending without question. Look at your tax bill and try to identify the single largest taxing entity and then go look at their record of achievement.
Public schools have not been about teaching for a very, very long time.
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“yet it endorses public school spending without question”
No, we don’t.
The blog archive is available by date in the lower right portion of the page.
You can also search by keyword with the box slightly above the archive.
Brutus
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It must be nice to sit there in your anonymity, taking pot shots at this Blog, which happens to devote, imho, an inordinate amount of space and time to the EPISD. Again, y’all unknowns should really take the time to think about what you say here.
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because you are the boss of everyone and so you can talk smack, everyone you don’t like is a russian asset
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You’re definitely confused because this blog has never advocated much less endorsed public school spending. Talk to your doctor about possible side effects of your meds.
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Don’t worry, the City gets plenty from Sun Metro. Instead using it towards the taking care of Sun Metro’s facilities and system upgrades the City latches on to a good portion of the sales tax we voted to designate to mass transit and “transfers” it away to other non transit projects.[
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As they do with all those franchise fees. We all know they are not putting any of that money into our crumbling streets.
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The one and only city council person that has consistently voted for the people of El Paso and has consistently drawn the ire of Mayor Margo is Alexsandra Annello in District 2. I’m proud to have voted for her and will vote for her again.
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Excellent post, as always!
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Comrades, I feel I must make myself clear as it seems some are offended by my posts.
I simply feel like the government is the solution to every problem citizens may have, and even for those problems they don’t realize are problems.
I think the government, by force if necessary, should be involved in every aspect of your life and that you should do nothing to offend certain classes of people.
Of course, those Conservatives you may denigrate, beat and steal from, Christians too. But other classes of people are highly protected from criticism or anything else.
Anyone who doesn’t understand that you must prove your own innocence in all matters involving the State is guilty of a crime. No one would accuse another person of wrongdoing if it were not true, not in a socialist society. Considering an accused person to be innocent has always been America’s biggest problem, it is a silly concept that anyone must offer proof of wrongdoing when accusing others. Conservatives and Christians are guilty by default.
The Green New Deal is non-negotiable. The science may not be debated. They still debate the dinosaurs and each year claim things they thought they knew were wrong. Climate science is not that way, it is settled, and anyone who agrees is allowed to make rules irregardless of their educational background.
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