Tax Increases

August 25, 2013

The city just raised it’s property tax rate.  The owner of a home of average value ($124,000) will be charged $28.37 more this year.

The city also raised the environmental fee on your garbage bill $2 a month.  That adds $24 per year to our bills, putting the real increase at $52.37.

Did the city’s environmental costs double in one year?  According to the El Paso Times  the extra money will be used to support street sweeping, median maintenance, and the animal shelter.

This is a tax increase too.

Next

The hospital district is said to be considering a tax increase that will add another $28 to the tax bill on that $125 thousand dollar home.

Then we have the county that added $62 per year to the average home’s tax bill last year.  The county is said to be considering yet another increase this year to help with their “needs”.

And then

The Ysleta district just passed a $26 annual increase on their average sized home ($107,000).

It looks like the El Paso Independent School District will add $5 per month to the onslaught.

The El Paso Community College district is the last major taxer and is considering an 8% increase that would add $18 to our bills.

Not done yet

For the average home in the Ysleta district we are at about $125 per year in increases before the county piles on.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
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Greedy or needy?

August 24, 2013

Our county judge was quoted recently as saying:

“Are you willing to raise taxes a little bit to help support our needs?”

Second time

This is the second recent incident where one of our elected officials used words that are telling.

One of our city representatives told us that she “begged” our new congressman to do something.

I don’t think that we should have to beg government for anything.

Now we hear the county judge begging for her “needs”. Personally, I think she needs to respect the taxpayers and minimize taxes.

This year the county approved $152 million for bonds to finance remodeling parts of the county hospital and building three new clinics.  The hospital CEO told us that the clinics would save $17 million dollars each year in emergency room costs.

Will the hospital budget go down $17 million dollars when the clinics are built? I doubt it, the county judge has “needs”.

We deserve better

Brutus

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Posted by Brutus

A government agency with some common sense

August 23, 2013

Word came out that the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDot)  is not going to allocate $1.6 million in federal funding to the bicycle-sharing program that the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority (CRRMA) has been promoting.

If nothing else this warns us to watch the CRRMA closely.  This is the group that the city is talking about turning over control of the international bridges to.  Evidently TXDoT can see the impracticality of CRRMA plans while city council cannot.  We need to watch what happens to the over 11 million dollars of profit that the city currently makes on the bridges and transfers to the general fund.  CRRMA may have grandiose plans for what to do here in El Paso, but evidently the State of Texas does not agree with them.

A recent article in the El Paso Times quotes a member of a group promoting bicycling in El Paso as saying:

“This was a great opportunity for the community of El Paso.  Austin is getting a program.  Fort Worth is barely getting it set up.  What is so different with those cities that they get one and we don’t?”

Newton

Without starting into the argument about the viability of downtown, or one about the people who frequent downtown, or relative lifestyles among the cities being compared, let’s start with gravity.

El Paso is built at the base of the Rocky Mountains.  We have hills, actually steep streets.  Pedaling a bicycle up a steep street is hard.  Riding one down a steep street is dangerous.

The article goes on to point out “The hope, for example, is that people who need to get from UTEP or the Downtown library to the El Paso County Courthouse will use a bike instead of their car…”

I suggest that anyone who is not familiar with the terrain between UTEP and the courthouse take an air-conditioned car ride between the two.  If the trip starts at UTEP the bicycle rider will have a downhill ride down Mesa.  Oregon would probably be safer.  Maybe the city could create run away bicycle traps to help save the people who lose control.

The trip back up the hill would be slower.  Think of pedaling up Mesa at 2 in the afternoon sometime next week.  It would be hot.  Then again it would probably be good for the hospitals as the riders suffered heart attacks.

Really nice bikes

The plan is that the bicycles will cost between one and two thousand dollars each.  These aren’t the kind of bicycles that the average citizen buys at the store, these are government bikes.  The person who checks one out will have to provide a credit card.  If the bicycle is not returned the credit card will be charged for the cost of the bike.  That probably means that people will not just leave the bikes outside the place they need to go to.

They will have to get the the kiosk to rent the bike.  Then they will take their ride.  Assuming they reach their destination alive they will probably elect to return the bicycle to another kiosk.  Then they will have to somehow get to their final destination.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Potholes

August 22, 2013

Driving though my old neighborhood the other day I was struck by the number of potholes in several of the streets.

I went to the city web site to see if there was a convenient link that I could use to report them.  There wasn’t.  I used the new limited search feature they have installed and learned that the city wants us to call 311 to report potholes.

Thinking about it, I find it hard to imagine that the current residents have not already called in.  If they haven’t I guess I would have to chalk it up to the residents thinking that it would be a waste of time.

If they have called in I would conclude that since the potholes have not been fixed the city does not have the time and/or the money to fix our local roads.

We deserve better

Brutus

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Decreasing quality of life

August 22, 2013

Half of city council passed the 2014 budget this week.  The mayor broke the tie and voted for the budget.

City staff had submitted a 784 million dollar budget proposal for council’s consideration.

After much work and sole searching about where we could cut back, council added 17 million dollars to staff’s request.

Good work council

Did council realize  that staff’s proposal made cuts in most of the departments that work with quality of life issues and thus they added money  to augment those departments?  (Read City budget)  The library, zoo, public health and parks were being cut back, to name a few of those departments.

No, each of those departments is still being cut.  Departments that deal with internal processes and construction are being increased.

It takes an army

The backup material to the agenda item includes a figure that I need help understanding.  The staff proposal allocated 36 million dollars to “Human Resources”.  The revised budget allocates 63 million dollars.

That’s a bunch of human resources.  Are raises being given?  Are more people being hired?  Will it take an army of clerks to handle the money they are spending?  Was the original staff proposal wrong?  They do have a history of understating expenses.

We deserve better

Brutus

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Posted by Brutus

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