Spending what they don’t have

May 7, 2013

The El Paso Central Appraisal District increased it’s valuation of our local Western Refining from $280 million to $1.1 billion in one year.

That is simply absurd.

Western refining appealed and fought, ultimately settling at a negotiated value of $320 million.

The district’s board is made up of elected officials from our local governments, including the city and the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD).  The board members should have stepped in, they certainly are in charge.

Now we find out from the city’s chief financial officer. who is also one of the Texas Education Agency  appointed managers of the EPISD, that both governments budgeted to receive the inflated tax income from Western Refining.  It looks like they were off by $11.5 million.  In fairness to the chief financial officer she was not part of the budget process this year at the EPISD,but watch out for next year.

The city will have to cut about $3 million from it’s current budget for the remaining four months left in their fiscal year.

Why?  Any competent manager would have held back on spending because of the probability that the valuation increase would not hold.  Instead she claims that they have spent the money.  The city manager and city council should not have spent money that they did not know for certain that we would receive.

What grade were you in when you learned not to count your chickens before they hatch?

This was done at a time when they have spent over $135 million to move city hall and build a new ball park.  Wait!  They have not actually spent the money yet, they have borrowed it and we will have to pay it back with interest over the next few decades.

The $3 million per year would pay most of the cost of the bonds that were issued to pay for the new ball park.

The city knew this could happen.  They also knew that the number of airport passengers was declining (see HOT, but getting colder)  and that the portion of the ball park financing paid by the hotel occupancy tax would likely not grow at the rate they predicted.

El Paso taxpayers have assumed almost $1 billion in new debt this year while the folks at the city have continued to spend despite knowing that incomes would not match what they told us.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Short memory? or something else?

May 6, 2013

I appreciate the El Paso Times pointing out how our current city councilman who is running for mayor has changed his tune about receiving campaign contributions from the group behind the baseball franchise.

The article said:

In January, Ortega said he would not accept contributions from them.

“On the heels of the ballpark issue, it’s more appropriate for me not to accept money from the ownership group, nor have they offered,” he (Ortega) said.

Then they quoted the candidate again:

On Friday, Ortega said, “I welcome their support that they believe in community and future.”

Whatever that means.  We don’t know if that was a misquote or just not a good sentence.

What we do know is that he has accepted money from the people he said he would not take money from.

What we do not know is how much money.  The Times did not report that.  The actual numbers will probably not come out until after the election since the report will not be due until then.

By waiting until late in the campaign to make their contributions they were able to avoid public disclosure of the actual  amounts until later.

What portion of what this person says should we believe?

5 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

Designing

May 5, 2013

It seems that Texas Tech will open a branch of their school of architecture in El Paso.  That seems good to me.

They need a building.  The City wants to lease them 16,587 square feet in the Union Depot building.  Sounds good.

You can read about the proposed lease here.

The lease is for 25 years for $1 per year!  I wrote in Maybe we should bear the tax burden for the entire state about how the city gave the Albert Fall mansion away on a $1 lease to Texas Tech.

Keep on giving

A 25 year lease for office space is a long lease.  Since our council seems to want to exceed our expectations in any way they can they are offering not one, but two 25 year extensions as part of the lease.

That gives the space away for 75 years!

I am happy to see the school moving here.  I just don’t understand why local taxpayers have to pay for a state function.

Maybe downtown property is worthless.

What about UTEP?  Are they entitled to our subsidies also?

We need someone at city hall that understands negotiating.  Maybe we could have gotten $2 a foot, at least something.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Headlines and head liars

May 4, 2013

Recently the El Paso Times has printed articles implying through their headlines that two local candidates for elected office had done something wrong.  Actually in one case the implication was that he might do something wrong in the future.

The headlines were negative and the stories were too, until you turned the page.  Then the reporters told the rest of the story and the reader could see that nothing was amiss.

This of course is a form of political assassination that the Times is performing either for it’s masters or to further it’s editorial policies.

Then on Friday’s (May 3, 2013) the Times front page headline actually lied.  Not kind of, actually.

It read:

“IN 2014, THE CITY WILL WELCOME THE TRIPLE-A EL PASO ____________________.  THE NAME IS UP TO YOU.”

The article told us that the team owners are encouraging fans to enter ideas for the team’s name and mascot on a web site or through the mail.  Top names will be selected and we will be able to vote.

The reporter then tells us “The team’s owners will ultimately decide the winning name …”.

That makes sense to me.  The owners should decide the name.

What I don’t like here is that the headline told us that we get to decide the name.  How does this happen?  Does the reporter not respect his written word?  Did a headline writer mess this up?  Was there an editor involved?

There is of course good news in this.  Someone is asking the voters for their opinion.  It seems that the franchise owners are smart enough to understand their relationship with their customers.  It’s a pity that the city does not get this.

Muckracker

4 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

We’ed be better off

May 3, 2013

I have been thinking about what we can expect if our city representative who has reached her term limit is successful and gets elected to the El Paso Independent School District board.  Then The El Paso Times endorsed her candidacy  saying she “… repeatedly demonstrates her desire to get into the weeds …”.

Why anyone would want to run when the Texas Education Commissioner has announced that his own group of managers will manage the district not the board members that the public elects is beyond me.  Let’s say she does get elected and her board gets control back.

This scenario obviously is fictional, it has not happened.  For the sake of readability let’s call her Ms. Aviary:

Ms. Aviary reports breathlessly to her school board that the National Tumbleweed Contest does not have a venue anymore.  It is true that no other city wants to host the event but this gives El Paso a once in a lifetime opportunity to change the quality of life of her citizens.

We need a major league site where tumbleweed growers can come and show us what they can do.  We also need a sponsor.

We don’t have much time.  We will need a manager who will have the authority to bulldoze all obstacles and ignore everyone who objects.  Competitive bidding and transparency will take too much time.  She will need to have a lot of power and an important name.  Ms. Aviary  suggests Tumble Weed Institutional  Tyrant Comprehensive Head (TWITCH).

Luck is with us though.  The selfless businessmen that own the Border Irrigation Group (BIG) that supplies sprinkler systems to growers and the Southwest Tumbleweed Unified Feeding Facility (STUFF) that makes specialized fertilizer for tumbleweeds have offered to buy the sponsorship of the National Tumbleweed Contest and bring it to El Paso.  The only problem is that they need a venue now.  Tumbleweed growing must occur before the summer.  You know what happens to them once they die.

We are so fortunate.  How could these two firms possibly benefit other than by having the joy of seeing El Paso get itself teary eyed?

We must act now.  Where can we find the venue?

Ms. Aviary has the answer.  Boy are we lucky to have her representing us!  She tells us that there is no time to study the market and buy up property.  We must use something we already have.  Austin High School!  That is the perfect venue.  Yes it is a little small, but we could engineer the planting to be more intimate.  Maybe we could graft some plants, we certainly know a lot about graft here in El Paso.   If need be we could cut a deal with the railroad to get the event  on track.

What about the children, you ask?  Once again Ms. Aviary has a plan.  Move the children.  We will have to be flexible.  She tells us that we have all of those yellow school buses that are only used at the beginning and end of the school day.  What we can do is to put one classroom in each school bus.  Where will we park the buses?  Simple again, don’t park them — drive them around town as the teacher conducts the class.

What about gym class and band and orchestra where being in a moving bus might be dangerous?  That’s where the railroad comes in, Ms. Aviary tells us.  We can rent surplus box cars and place them in those unused bicycle lanes all around town.  We will have to pay the price though, surplus box car renting is expensive if you do it this way.

How will we pay for this?  Well first, Ms. Aviary says, it won’t cost much at all.  We already own the campus and the buses so it should only cost about 50 cents to build the venue and about 30 cents to move those kids around.

As luck would have it we can use our powers to get someone else to pay a large part of the 50 cents so that it does not have to come out of our pockets.  We can charge the allergists in town a fee based on the number of cases they treat.  The tumbleweeds will help drive up revenue.  She thought about taxing antihistamines but wanted something progressive.

The El Paso Times  could be a problem though.  What we need to do is to review their transcripts and make them all “A” students retroactively.  They still won’t know how to think independently, ask thoughtful questions, or do much other than print what we tell them to,  but at least they won’t be representing the citizens.

The times interviews Ms. Aviary  and prints this quotation from her. “I’m brilliant and am happy to show those ignorant voters and crazy taxpayers how to improve their lives, it’s nothing to sneeze at really.”

Just wait and see.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Cato

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