This came in from Xavier Miranda:
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January congressional candidate forums
January 11, 2018
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Posted by Brutus
City loses refinancing options
January 10, 2018According to this slide from the recent special presentation to city council the new feral tax law will limit the city’s ability to issue tax refunding bonds:
In prior years the city had the ability to issue tax refunding bonds to purchase old bonds that had unfavorable interest rates. In short, when the cost of bonds went down the city could buy new bonds and use the money to refund old bonds thus lowering the annual interest costs.
Unfortunately the city often used the opportunity to make the new bonds expire later than the existing bonds. They were kicking the can down the road so that they did not have to pay off the principal on the original bonds.
Before the new law the city could evidently use this trick whenever they felt that interest rates justified the action.
Evidently under the new law they will only be able to do this within a window 90 days before the published call date for the original bonds. According to the chart above the call date on bonds is typically 10 years after the bonds were issued.
Bond interest costs fluctuate. The city will now only be able to use refunding bonds 9 3/4 years after the bonds are issued. Interest rates might be higher or lower at that time.
This will have a significant impact on the city budget.
The spendthrifts on this and prior councils have put us in a box.
We deserve better
Brutus
4 Comments | City government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
EPISD–public facility corporation
January 9, 2018These minutes from the EPISD administrative public facility corporation show that the district still intends to use the corporation to build the new central office:
The public facility corporation was created by the board of managers which was then headed by our current mayor.
Don’t worry about the cost–we can’t do anything about it. The corporation has the power to issue bonds without voter approval.
If you are curious about the “summary of the project” that was presented, don’t bother to look. The district does not post the agenda material for this special group’s meetings.
We deserve better
Brutus
4 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
City briefing on increasing bond costs
January 8, 2018City council is going to have another one of its “special” meetings Monday, January 8, 2018.
The city says they are special because they are not part of the regularly scheduled Tuesday meetings.
We think that they are special because they are not held in the regular city council meeting room and the video tapes of the meetings are seldom posted on the city’s website. It looks to us that they hold these meetings to do things that the public is not made aware of.
This meeting will consider two special items. One of them is a briefing for city council members on the impact of the recent tax legislation passed in Washington.
The effect of the legislation will be to make bonds more expensive to El Pasoans.
Remember that the city has yet to issue over $450 million of bonds that were authorized in the 2012 bond election. This shows the breakdown.
We don’t expect the city will tell us how much this is going to cost us anytime soon.
We deserve better
Brutus
7 Comments | City government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
School districts encouraged not to maintain buildings
January 7, 2018Unfortunately state law encourages school districts to avoid maintenance on buildings until they reach the point where they have to be replaced.
Locally the districts have had us paying for the new buildings by taking on debt through bond issuances.
School districts are allowed to set two different property tax rates.
The first is known as M&O (maintenance and operations) with the second commonly called I&S (interest and sinking fund). Bonds are paid for out of I&S taxes.
If our numbers are correct the state has placed a cap (maximum) on the M&O rate at $1.50 per hundred dollars of property valuation and has capped the I&S rate at fifty cents per hundred dollars of property valuation.
If the districts were to properly maintain our buildings the costs would have to come out of the M&O funds. When they ignore maintenance and end up having to build a new building they get to use I&S funds.
Last year EPISD’s M&O rate was $1.07 per hundred and their I&S rate was twenty-four cents per hundred. Remember that this was before the new bonds have been issued. The I&S rate will go up when they are issued.
We deserve better
Brutus
8 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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