Will city council pay attention?
The slide below is from a recent budget presentation made to city council:
The very next slide in the presentation recaps what the public told them our priorities ought to be:
City staff seems to think that streets are at the bottom of the list of quality of place/life issues.
We think that they should be number one.
Our desire for improvements in our parks does not even make their list.
They know what we want. Will they do it?
We deserve better
Brutus
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City government | 
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Posted by Brutus
Max Grossman sent in this note about the children’s museum:
“We need to go to another level to make sure that we’re going to deliver a quality project–and a project of excellence to the community.”
Tracey Jerome, Director of Museums and Cultural Affairs, City of El Paso, KVIA report, 5/22/18
Dear Friends,
$19.5 million were originally earmarked for the Children’s Museum, one of the signature “Quality of Life” projects. That figure has now more than tripled to $60 million, with $20 million coming from the El Paso Community Foundation and the balance coming from the City of El Paso. Thus the City is planning to issue at least $20 million in certificates of obligation to pay for the massive, bloated bond project,without voter approval. This is an egregious act of economic tyranny and it will not be tolerated.
Watch City leaders continue to tell us that we deserve a world-class state-of the-art facility, as our debt explodes into the red zone. I said it before and I’ll say it again: we have the 2nd highest homestead tax rate among the 50 largest cities in America and our City’s portion of our homestead tax, at $0.80 per $100 of valuation, is the highest among major Texas cities. Our tax-supported debt has exceeded $2 billion, which is more than Austin’s! This comes at a time when thousands of El Pasoans are receiving notices that their property taxes are skyrocketing; I got mine, which comes with a 10% tax hike in a single stroke! We cannot afford to expend tens of millions of extra dollars on entertainment projects that are not essential while so many of our roads resemble those of Beirut!
See the excellent report by Aaron Montes on the front page of the current issue of the El Paso Inc.
El Pasoans are watching, and they are not happy.
9 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The news from EPISD sounds like what the news from the city did when they were building the ball park.
Years ago we wrote in Running total about the difference between what we were told by the city and what ultimately happened.
In short the ballpark started off as a $35 million project.
By the time we published Running total the costs were over $220 million and that was before we learned that the bonds would cost us another $22 million because the city’s financial people did not sell them when they should have.
Now EPISD’s budget woes are the issue of the day locally. The Times wrote an article where they questioned the $7 million shortfall that the district is now talking about:
“The figure is a difference of about $4 million from the $2.9 million deficit that the district presented at a May 22 budget workshop, less than two weeks ago.”
Later in the article the Times quoted a school board member:
“Back in the day, during the bond, our hope was that we’d be able to get there with bond money,”
He was referring to the $668 million bond that now looks like it will fail to solve their problems.
Who at the district is responsible for the numbers they are publishing?
We deserve better
Brutus
23 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The city tells us that using tax payer money to facilitate building a “destination resort” will bring tourists to El Paso and make money for us.
We heard the same line when the city’s airport decided to build a golf course designed by a world class course designer.
I have yet to hear of anyone that has come to El Paso to use the course.
According to this article in the El Paso Times we about one million dollars each year operating the course.
Maybe they will build another one.
We deserve better
Brutus
8 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
City council says that they want to make El Paso a “destination” city with resorts and golf courses and such.
Do they realize that we have the highest hotel occupancy tax in the state? The rate is so high that our state legislature passed a law that will not allow us to raise it any more.
Does someone need to tell them that cost enters into the decision of where most of us go on vacation?
On the other hand taking more tax money from the citizens to build resorts for the benefit of business concerns would allow the city to collect more hotel occupancy tax money. That’s money they can use to build even more arenas and stadiums.
We deserve better
Brutus
13 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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