elpasospeak

I was interested to see how city council handled the $100 million certificates of obligation issue so I watched the video of the meeting.

The city manager repeatedly made the point that “there’s no story here”.  He kept telling council that if someone was to make a “report” there is “no story” since all of the money was approved “years ago” and thus there is “no story”

He was evidently trying to tell council that they had nothing to worry about with the voters not liking the issuance of the $100 million in bonds.

I believe that there is a story here.

He, city staff, and city council knew that they were going to need to issue the certificates of obligation but kept that quiet while the $413 million bond issue was being considered by the voters.

A more honest group would have told the voters that the $100 million would be brought at their first opportunity after the bond election.

We deserve better

Brutus

If you have any doubt about whether the folks at the city have found a way around the 3.5% maximum property tax increase that the state imposed last year take a look at this slide from a recent city council presentation:

The way they will get more money is to issue debt.

We deserve better

Brutus

Speaking of city taxes, take a look at this slide from one of the presentations to city council:

Are they proud of the fact that Dallas has been able to stay basically flat with their tax rate and Austin has been decreasing their tax rate while we have suffered a 33% increase in taxes?

Why would they present a slide with two cities that make our city government look bad?

We deserve better

Brutus

As part of the requirements the city must meet before city council can approve the $100 million of certificates of obligation the city must notify us of what their current debt situation is.

From their notice:

the current combined principal and interest required to pay all of the City’s outstanding public securities secured by and payable from ad valorem raxes 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;

The $100 million will turn out to be $173 million by the time interest is paid.

Before issuing the new certificates of obligation, and before issuing the $413 million that the recent election gave them, and before issuing the $180 million for the multipurpose performing arts and entertainment facility they will have to pay out $1.818 billion dollars.

That does not include the approximately $400 million that the police and firefighter pension plans are underfunded by.

Let’s add this up:

Existing debt                              1,818,000,000   (that’s 1.8 billion)

         New certificates of obligation       173,780,000

Police and fire pension                  400,000,000

Recent bond election                    413,000,000 (that’s without interest)

Total                                 $2,804,780,000 (that’s 2.8 billion dollars)

Our city population is about 685,000 people.

Each of us owes about $4,094 at this point.

We deserve better

Brutus

One week after the voters approved $413 million in bonds for the city they are back at the trough getting ready to issue $100 million in certificates of obligation without our approval.

Could this be a coincidence?

Or did city staff know that they would ask for the $100 million while the voters were considering what to do about the $413 million?

Would you have voted yes in the bond election if you knew that they planned to pile on more debt without our approval?

If you don’t have an opinion read this slide:

They planned to do this when they passed the budget.

Shame on them.

They clearly planned to put one over on the citizens and they did.

Is there anyone at the city that we can trust at this point?

We deserve better

Brutus