Next danger point for Lost Dog

May 10, 2019

Congratulations to the supporters of Lost Dog.

As we know the election will force city council to pass an ordinance that protects the area from development.

City council can in the future pass a new ordinance that would override the ordinance thus making the land available for development.

The city council representatives are not likely to do this from fear that overriding the initiative  ordinance will hurt their chances for re-election.

The next regular city council election will be in 2020.  Three of our current city representatives will not be eligible for election but will sit in office until new members are sworn in, so they could vote for a new ordinance between the election and swearing in day.

The period between the next election and when the winners take office is the most dangerous.

If the four city representatives that are scheduled for re-election in 2020 get re-elected they could vote to override the ordinance with no fear of hurting their chances for re-election.  Why?  They can only serve two terms.  If they get re-elected they cannot be elected yet another time so fear of public backlash will be minimized–they cannot run again and thus the voters don’t matter.  Combine those four with the three that will be lame ducks and you have seven representatives that can vote without hurting their chances.  They simply have to have the vote between election day and the day new members are sworn in.

City council members can still be recalled but  now it will  the signatures of 20% of the people who are eligible to vote in that district in order to call a recall election.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

One last chance?

May 9, 2019

Get ready for local government tax increases this year.

There are bills being considered in the Texas legislature that would restrict the percentage of increase local governments could add to their tax rates.

Right now most local governments (not the school districts since many of them are already at their maximum rates) can increase their tax rate by around 8% every year without triggering a roll back election.

The new bills would restrict that growth.  It seems that one bill being considered would limit their increase to 3.5% per year, once again without triggering an election.

The situation has our locals concerned.  Reducing costs does not appear to be something that they want to do.

With the threat of a 3.5% cap being imposed on them don’t be surprised if they take what might be their last opportunity and hit us with an 8% increase this year.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Billing the campaigns

May 5, 2019

According to this ABC-7 report our President’s re-election campaign has been billed $470,417.05 by the city.

This is the breakdown:

The ABC-7 I-Team obtained the 29-page invoice from the City of El Paso that details the costs incurred which totals $470,417.05.

The city’s invoice bills Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. It is broken down by reimbursement owed across six departments:

  • Department of Aviation: $6,286.57
  • Fire Department: $60,630.84
  • Health Department: $528
  • Streets & Maintenance: $6,452
  • Sun Metro: $15,577.52
  • Police Department: $380,942.12

According to the report the bill has not been paid.

I wonder what the city billed our former congressman for his event that was held at the same time.

I hesitate to publish this post from fear that the comments will turn into a flood of candidate bashing.  Please don’t.

My recollection is that we have only had to delete a few comments in the past years of publishing.

We deserve better

Brutus

10 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Call your state representative

April 18, 2019

A regular reader posted a comment the other day that deserves promotion.

S/he wrote:

BRUTUS: On page 9A of today’s El Paso TIMES, there is a short clip titled “Property tax bill clears Senate over backlash by big cities.”

This might be a TOPIC for tomorrow, since it’s an effort to CAP yearly property tax increases to 3.5% for cities and 2.5% for school districts.

Could not find this article on the TIMES website, but did find it at the Texas Tribune and other Texas newspaper websites.

Since some posters on your website have such galactic ‘shit fits’ over local taxes; it might be HELPFUL for those Texas legislators OUTSIDE El Paso pushing this bill, to hear from El Paso taxpayers who like the idea. Also let the Texas Governor and LT. Governor know.

Of course our local elected officials are ‘scared shitless’ over this initiative! Remember: “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

******************************************

The bill has different house and senate versions but has passed in the senate.

It was filed back in November of 2016.  It appears as though it will be considered during this congressional session.

Hope springs eternal.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

An attaboy for the city

April 10, 2019

I heard a local the other day telling a story that he considered surprising.

Evidently while crossing a major street he found one of the pedestrian crossing signal buttons to be inoperative.

He called the city’s 311 number and reported the issue.

Within a week the problem had been fixed.

Isn’t it a shame that he was surprised?

Maybe things are improving over there.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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