EPISD–no limits to their spending

January 10, 2020

Take a look at this EPISD report:

The voters authorized bond sales of $452 million.

At the beginning of 2019 they had issued $200 million and had spent $42 million.  That left $158 million unspent.

In 2019 they spent another $72 million leaving $86 million unspent  going into 2020.

Why then did they sell another $252 million in 2019 when they had $86 million sitting around?

Interest

When they sold the $252 million of bonds they were able to put the money into interest bearing accounts.  So far they have generated almost $12 million from  interest.  The taxpayers are paying interest on bonds that have not been spent on construction.  The district is getting interest on our unspent money.

The net effect is that they have been able to add $12 million to their budgets.

Unfortunately that is not enough to cover their planned spending.

The report shows that even after getting the extra $12 million from us they are still $13 million short.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Government pensions

December 30, 2019

JerryK wrote this in a comment a couple of weeks ago:

Stop payments into City retirement funds (that are underfunded anyway) and convert employees’ equity into annuities. Subsequently make annual contributions into employees’ IRA accounts so they are on a level playing field with the private sector that has largely abandoned pensions. Contribute what we can afford, like the private sector.

I agree.

If any of us have to participate in the social security system then I believe that all of us should have to.

The pay that our government employees receive should compensate them fairly while they are working.  Pension plans should be eliminated.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

EPISD–expensive borrowing

December 17, 2019

EPISD wants to issue Maintenance Tax Notes in the amount of $17,500,000 to perform repairs on El Paso High School.

Don’t worry you won’t have to vote on this, the board will just issue the notes and send you the bill.

The chart below shows that the district does not intend to pay down any of the principal for another ten years:

Try that with your banker.

Failure to schedule principal payments for the first ten years will cost us over $6 million.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

7 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD not the biggest hogs

December 2, 2019

This slide is part of a future EPISD finance and administration committee meeting:

It looks like the city is leading the way on tax increases.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

EPISD telling the truth

November 27, 2019

This slide comes from an EPISD public relations and marketing committee presentation:

Was this a Freudian slip?

Did they mean to say “source of pride and innovation”?

However they certainly are a source of price.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »