Community meetings can help

August 20, 2018

It appears that our mayor has gotten the word about holding the line on taxes.

Up until the other day it appeared that city council was going to slap a 1% sales tax on our electricity and natural gas bills.

We also get garbage bills but it appears that they are not going to worry about adding $3 per month to each of our garbage bills in the form of a franchise fee.  The franchise fee is designed to charge a city owned department for using city owned streets.

At least the 1% sales tax appears to be dead for the moment.

The Times reported that our mayor threatened to veto the sales tax after attending “community meetings” over the weekend.

We really would appreciate any information that our readers can give us that might let us know when and where those meetings were.

Listening to citizens does not appear to be one of his strong points.

Regardless of his motivation we thank him.

This is better

Brutus

15 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Will this be next?

August 19, 2018

With the city considering slapping a franchise tax on our water utility for using our roads (which by the way they repair whenever they cause a problem), what will be next?

Will they next impose “franchise fees” on

  • Sun Metro for running empty buses
  • The airport for letting airplanes use our runways
  • The school districts for running school buses around

Will they charge us for driving our vehicles on city streets?

Where will this end?

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Something to do

August 18, 2018

Take a look at http://www.celebmtns.org

Jim Tolbert is doing a great job making it possible to learn about and enjoy our outdoors.

At the website you will be able to learn about more that forty outdoor field trips and events that the group has scheduled between now and the end of November.

This is better

Brutus

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

School safety tip

August 17, 2018

We have not read this safety tip in the coverage relating to the recent death of a mother in a school parking lot:

When around our schools lower all of your windows so that you can better hear what is around you.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

The modern smoke filled room

August 16, 2018

Our county commissioners seem to like to have “special” meetings just like city council.

This page shows us that they like to have a lot of meetings and that they hold them in different places:

They meet in their public courtroom, in the building lobby, and disturbingly in the judge’s conference room.

Pick a meeting

The important ones are held out in public, right?

Nope

The next slide is the first part of the agenda for the August 16, 2018 meeting (being held in the judge’s conference room).

Evidently public participation in the budget does not need to be provided for.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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