November 2013 sales tax numbers

December 23, 2013

The November 2013 sales tax numbers from the Texas comptroller of public accounts show El Paso collecting 1.53% less this year than last.

The city budgeted a 4.3% increase for this year.

Shortfall

That puts us at 5.83% lower than the city budget in the month of November.

Something has to give

Remember that the city plans to pay for most of the ball park bonds with hotel occupancy taxes.  The city’s projection is that we will have a 3% increase in hotel occupancy taxes this year.  The actual numbers show a 1% decrease.

The bonds must be paid.  Other things like roads and public health are optional.  Property taxes cannot be used to pay for the bonds.  That leaves other revenues like sales taxes.

What will happen now?  Will we start to see city services cut?

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | Ball park, City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Why is this important?

December 21, 2013

The December 17, 2013 city council agenda had one item posted for executive session.

The agenda states that the item relates to “City of San Antonio v. Wu, et al, Cause No. 13-0755, before the Texas Supreme Court (551.071)”.

I don’t know why the city would be discussing this case but there must be a reason.

Wu is evidently about San Antonio destroying an apartment building that the city declared to be a public nuisance.  Wu was not happy and sued the city.  The trial court threw the case out and essentially sided with the city.  The court of appeals disagreed and essentially sided with Wu.  The city has now taken the case to the state supreme court.

Important to El Paso

Why is this important to El Paso?  Might it somehow interfere with plans that the city has?  Does the city need to come up with another way to do something that it plans to do?

I have no idea and hope that one of our readers can help enlighten us.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Continued shortfall

December 20, 2013

The numbers on our hotel occupancy tax (HOT) for the third quarter of 2013 are out.

Remember that the interest on our new ball park (serious principal payments are not scheduled until 2024) is being partially paid for by the HOT.  The city has projected a 3 percent increase.

The new numbers show that for the first three quarters of the year we are down 1 percent when compared to 2012.  That means that our HOT numbers projected by our city staff are wrong to the tune of 4 percent.

Property taxes cannot be used to pay for the stadium so other revenues like sales tax will have to be used.  The city budgeted a 4.3 percent increase in sales tax revenue for this year.  So far the numbers are coming in at 2 percent.

At what point do we hold these people accountable?

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | Ball park, City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Answer from the city

December 18, 2013

The chief of staff for the mayor was kind enough to respond to my question.

She attached this presentation (specialelection237154) to the city council by the city attorney.  She also directed me to the video of the council meeting.

I appreciate her response but still do not see what allows the city to schedule the special election more than 120 days from the city representative’s announcement.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

No telling

December 11, 2013

In Hurry up and waste we saw that city council increased a $1.25 million design contract to $4.7 million, no bidding necessary.  This was in September, 2012.

The contract was for services to design a new trolley system for El Paso.

The Texas Transportation Commission supposedly had $90 million that it was ready to give to El Paso for the project.  We later learned that the money was not available to us.  Sadly we might have wasted our $4.7 million.

The amended contract gave the contractor 210 calendar days from the city’s “notice to proceed” to complete the design .

Where is it?

More than a calendar year has passed since the contract was amended.  Where is the design?

I went to the city web site and got this page as a result of  my search for “streetcar”:

Streetcarsearch

Clicking the City Hosts Public Meetings to Present Preliminary Streetcar System link, I got this page:

streetcarsearchresult

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government, Purchasing, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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