“Never have so many been manipulated so much by so few.” — Aldous Huxley

June 4, 2015

CBS news has a post on their web site dated February 18, 2015.

They tell us that El Paso is the 8th poorest major city in the nation.  The article says:

  • Percentage of incomes under $25,000: 30.7%
  • Percentage of population with bachelor’s degree: 22.7%
  • Percentage of incomes over $150,000: 5.2% (#28, tied with Indianapolis)
  • Total population: 660,795

Education and low wages are two of the biggest economic issues in this border city. The U.S. Census Bureau notes only 74 percent of El Paso residents ages 25 and older have a high school degree or the equivalent, compared to the national average of 85 percent. And lower levels of education often equal lower earning power. According to a recent Forbes survey of 100 metropolitan areas where people earn the biggest and smallest paychecks, El Paso was ranked 97, with median starting salaries of $39,600 and an overall median salary of just under $47,000.

Making this even more unfortunate is the fact that El Paso is now ranked as having the fifth highest property tax of the fifty largest cities in the United States in the “50 State Property Tax Comparison Study” published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence.

Highest taxes, lowest incomes

Not quite but close.  We have the fifth highest taxes and the eighth lowest incomes.

Stay tuned.  Tomorrow we will look at the study in more detail.

We deserve better

4 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

5th highest taxes

June 3, 2015

Here is the listing of the 50 cities with the highest homeowner property tax in 2014:

2014top50cities

We are ranked 5th highest.  Last year we were ranked 7th, but our local spending is beginning to kick in and we can expect to climb closer to number one next year.

Looking ahead

The majority of the $400 million we voted to spend for quality of life projects has not been borrowed yet and thus is not in our tax bills.  It’s anyone’s guess what the final bill will be with the anticipated cost overruns included.

Our two major school districts are telling us that they will need a combined one billion dollars for school construction and maintenance.

Our city streets are crumbling.  The bill there will be in the hundreds of millions.

The children’s hospital is in bankruptcy and our county hospital operated with a $12 million dollar loss last year without even considering any amount the children’s hospital owes them.

The city intends to build the Alameda Brio line starting soon at a projected cost of $35.5 million.  The money for this will not come from federal grants but will be local money.

The county is talking about tearing down the downtown jail and building a new one.  They have told us that it will take over $30 million to fix the existing building.

The property tax study does not include the franchise fees that the city is charging us through the water utility.

Could be 3rd highest

Our taxes would only have to go up $135 per year on a $150,000 dollar house for us to have been the third highest city last year.  I can just hear it now, “that’s less than the cost of a soft drink per day”.

We deserve better

Brutus

19 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

City secrecy part two

June 2, 2015

We wrote the other day about the number of items being posted on the city council agendas without backup material.

The situation has continued with last week’s agenda.

City council’s rules used to require that all backup material be posted at the same time as the agenda item.  If not, council was required to take a special vote to allow the exception before considering the item on the agenda.

Cato wrote about this in Testing the newbies back in June of 2013.

In Sneak attack back in December of 2012 we pointed out how council was breaking it’s own rules by not requiring the vote.  We pointed out that:

Section  2.92.050 (G) of ordinance 017112 makes that an ethics violation which is punishable under 2.92.150 (A).  “The failure of any officer or employee to comply with this chapter or the violation of one or more of the standards of conduct set forth in this article, which apply to him or her, shall constitute grounds for expulsion, reprimand, removal from office or discharge.”

The city parliamentarian, who is also the city attorney, should have stopped this but she chose not to.  More on that in another post.

From the record it looks like city staff found the old ordinance to require too much public disclosure so they decided to get their new council to change the rules.

The result

Secrecy.

Council relaxed the rules.  Now city staff posts items without backup material so that the voters do not have time to exercise their rights to address council before damage is done.

We should go back to the old rules.  Agenda items should not be posted without backup material.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

City attorney focus of attention?

June 1, 2015

This came in from Helen Marshall on Saturday, May 30, 2015:

Al W said at a debate today that the city attorney told council members who objected to hiring the contractor for San Jacinto that the law required that they do so; he stated as an attorney that such was not the case and the city attorney was responsible for the debacle.  And further (both he and Peter agreeing on this) that $1000 per day is peanuts given the size of the contract.

Who knows?

10 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Typical waste?

May 31, 2015

This image was taken at a city park.

IMG_20150427_085140019

Note that there is a metal sheet that goes over a drainage channel.  The structure features two yellow guard rails that are probably there to keep someone in a wheelchair from falling off the sheet.

The metal sheet connects two sections of sidewalk.  The height between the sidewalk and the parking lot is precisely the same as the height between the metal sheet and the parking lot.

I have to wonder why the yellow guard rails were purchased and installed.  A person in a wheelchair would  fall no further from the metal sheet to the parking lot than they would from the sidewalk to the parking lot.

As for falling into the drainage channel, a 6 inch high rail would serve to prevent that.

Then again, maybe I am missing something.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »