City briefing on increasing bond costs

January 8, 2018

City council is going to have another one of its “special” meetings Monday, January 8, 2018.

The city says they are special because they are not part of the regularly scheduled Tuesday meetings.

We think that they are special because they are not held in the regular city council meeting room and the video tapes of the meetings are seldom posted on the city’s website.  It looks to us that they hold these meetings to do things that the public is not made aware of.

This meeting will consider two special items.  One of them is a briefing for city council members on the impact of the recent tax legislation passed in Washington.

The effect of the legislation will be to make bonds more expensive to El Pasoans.

Remember that the city has yet to issue over $450 million of bonds that were authorized in the 2012 bond election.  This shows the breakdown.

We don’t expect the city will tell us how much this is going to cost us anytime soon.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

7 Comments | City government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Better than perfect (at least in their own minds)

January 6, 2018

During the city’s budget presentations for fiscal year 2018 this chart was presented:

Take a look at the 911 calls answered within 15 seconds.

Somehow in 2015 they were able to answer 123.46% of them within 15 seconds.  We aren’t smart enough to figure how they did that other than maybe they answered a bunch of them twice.

In 2016 they wasted less time and only answered 119.47% of them within 15 seconds.

At the time the presentation was made they dropped down to 90.14%

Do they ever read their own stuff?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

3 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

It’s all good–my foot!

January 3, 2018

Our chamber of commerce published this recently:

Isn’t it a shame that according to the chamber our top industries are:  home health care services, temporary help services, offices of physicians, and supermarkets?

Yet our city council continues to grant tax abatements for retail and entertainment ventures.  If they have to give our money away couldn’t they give it to companies that create jobs that send goods or services?

We deserve better

Brutus

10 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD–planetarium

December 21, 2017

It is hard to believe that EPISD has no plan for moving their planetarium when the city kicks them out of their central offices by the airport.

The school district has made plans to move but according to recent news reports the plans do not include moving the planetarium.  Instead it seems that they are asking the city for money to accomplish the move.

Many of us would think that with the amount of money the district is spending on the central office move and the bond issue that they would have found a way to fund a great resource for students.

We deserve better

Brutus

12 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Shrinking revenue

December 20, 2017

Our tax and spend city council got some bad news at their Tuesday, December 19, 2017 meeting.

The city lowered their revenue projections for this year’s budget compared to last year’s actual receipts.

The actual results came in even lower:

We deserve better

Brutus

15 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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