How much worse can it get?
Sun Metro continues to cost us more and do less.
Ridership is down, costs are up, farebox recovery is dropping, collisions are up, worker’s comp claims are up, customer complaints are up.
The mayor has been complaining that the county is getting 1/2% in sales taxes.
Sun Metro gets 1/2% in sales taxes and is under city council control.
Why don’t they do something about this?
We deserve better
Brutus
7 Comments | 
City government, County Government | 
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Posted by Brutus
In El Paso we have the third highest property tax rates of the 50 largest cities in the United States. That puts us higher than any city in Texas.
We have the highest hotel-motel occupancy tax in the state. In fact the state passed legislation to put a cap on hotel-motel occupancy taxes when El Paso boosted ours. You might argue that local residents don’t pay this tax but the higher the tax is the more it discourages conventions from coming to El Paso and spending money.
Our sales tax rate is the highest allowed by the state. The state allows local areas to charge up to 2%. In our case one half of a percent goes to the county and one and one half percent goes to the city and its bus system.
Now it seems that some of the people down at city hall want to get permission to go over the 2% maximum.
This came from a KFOX news report the other day:
“But, how can (we) come up with going about a creative idea pushing something at the state Legislature to try and get an increase at the overall sales tax? That’s something we’ve talked about to the council over the last two years now,” said Robert Cortinas, interim director of municipal finance.
They published this quote from the mayor:
“Well, given that, the only alternative would be to go back to the governor and say, ‘Fine. Give another half cent on our sales tax revenue because in 1987, we determined it to go to the county,” Margo said.
Didn’t he promise to hold the line on tax increases?
Is there no end to their money grab?
We deserve better
Brutus
4 Comments | City government, County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
I ran across this web page from smartasset.com:
I don’t know that the numbers are right but this is what someone from out of town will see if they are thinking of moving to El Paso.
We deserve better
Brutus
10 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The Texas comptroller has this graphic on his web site:
The site explains:
Texas county sales taxes were first authorized in 1987, when most city and transit sales taxes were already in place — and many were already at the 2 percent cap. For this reason, most county sales taxes are applied outside metropolitan areas, with the notable exception of El Paso County. At present, 123 Texas counties levy sales taxes, most at a rate of 0.5 percent. County sales tax revenue generally is earmarked by statute for property tax relief.
Contrary to what the mayor seems to be saying, the city is not giving any sales tax to the county.
More accurately, the voters of El Paso county decided to impose the tax on purchases. The city had nothing to do with it.
The city has a legal department with enough lawyers to make it one of the largest law organizations in the city. Maybe the mayor could get one of them to educate him.
We deserve better
Brutus
3 Comments | City government, County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
If our current mayor finds a way to take the 1/2% sales and use tax that the county gets away from the county what will happen to our county taxes?
According to recent news reports the city thinks that the money in question comes to about $43 million a year.
Would the county have to raise their property tax rate?
Wouldn’t this end up being a tax increase from the mayor who told us that he would work to keep taxes low?
We deserve better
Brutus
14 Comments | City government, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
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