One of the rumors on the street is that the city wants to put pay raises for the mayor and city representatives one the ballot of the next election.
We have seen that they have activated an Ad Hoc Charter Advisory Committee.
Can anyone enlighten us?
We deserve better
Brutus
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City government | 
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Posted by Brutus
It was disappointing to read the Ysleta Independent School District’s superintendent’s comments in the Times the other day:
“I think what’s being irresponsibly promoted is the idea that this district and Parkland Middle school endorsed or promoted a walkout. Nothing could be further from the truth”
The superintendent told the Times that the district’s crisis management response team was on hand in anticipation of the event.
The students were allowed to leave their classrooms and congregate on the school grounds.
How can students just get up en masse and be allowed to leave their classrooms without permission from the school? Shouldn’t we think that the students would be disciplined if they left without permission? They won’t be disciplined because they were allowed to leave.
An earlier Times article wrote of the superintendent:
He said there were walkouts at almost all the district’s secondary schools — mainly to the football fields or ending in moments of silence.
The dictionary definition of irresponsible is not showing a proper sense of responsibility. There is no question that the district did at least facilitate the walkout. Claiming that the public is irresponsible is ludicrous.
Time will tell if anyone did anything wrong that they should be held responsible for.
What we have not heard from the superintendent is that he will take steps to see to it that this cannot happen again.
We deserve better
Brutus
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Posted by Brutus
We are receiving some lengthy and well researched comments on the blog.
Again let us ask for help in writing the blog.
You may remain anonymous. Please keep your post clean and do not make it personal.
Send your prospective posts to brutusep@yahoo.com
Brutus
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Posted by Brutus
Our central appraisal district has re-appraised all of the properties in the county.
Many homeowners are seeing their appraised values going up. State law limits the amount of the increase to 10% of last year’s appraisal.
A common misconception is that property tax bills will automatically go up as a result of an increased appraisal.
Actually each taxing entity is required to calculate the “effective tax rate”. From the state comptroller’s web site:
The effective tax rate is the rate the taxing unit needs to generate about the same amount of revenue it received in
the year before on properties taxed in both years.
Thus if every homeowner’s appraisal goes up 5% the effective tax rate will have to go down 5%.
Where one might see a tax increase is if their home value goes up more than the average increase of all of the other home owners.
When our local elected officials publish their new tax rates don’t make the mistake of looking at the rate (percentage) they publish.
If home values go up 5% and the taxing entity’s rate stays the same as last year they are increasing taxes 5% even though the rate is the same.
We deserve better
Brutus
9 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Tragically a local sixth grade student was struck and killed by a pickup truck Friday, April 20, 2018.
The incident occurred during a school sanctioned “walk out”. The walk out was scheduled as a protest against gun violence on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shootings.
According to the school district superintendent:
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Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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