More vacation?

December 26, 2019

The came in from our loyal reader EPKamikazi:

On the news tonight they announced city hall and administrative offices will be closed from 23 December through 2 January. Does that mean those personnel will be on paid status?
******************
We deserve better
Brutus

10 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2019

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for your continued interest.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Be safe

December 24, 2019

We hope by now that you have finished whatever shopping you have decided to do.

Traffic will be congested and accidents will happen.

Go home and enjoy the holiday.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Sinkhole City

December 23, 2019

This came in from Max Grossman:

Friends,
On December 10, Moody’s Investment Service announced that in the event of a recession of similar severity to the 2008-09 downtown, El Paso will be one of four cities (including Detroit) in which “adjusted net pension liabilities will rise by more than 100% of revenue.” I guess we had better pray that the economy holds up and that the stock market does not suffer a major reversal, otherwise we’re toast!
Earlier this year, State Data Lab, a subsidiary of Truth in Accounting, whose mission is “to educate and empower citizens with understandable, reliable, and transparent government financial information,” declared that “El Paso is a Sinkhole City without enough assets to cover its debt.” And that was based upon financial data from 2017!
I have stated it many times and will state it again. The City Manager, Mayor, and City Council Representatives have placed us on a financial path that could lead to disaster. Even as our homestead tax burden is second only to Detroit, they still insist that our government should be in the entertainment business, providing us with stadiums and waterparks.
Lord help us.
Max
**********************************************
We deserve better
Brutus

15 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Truth in advertising

December 22, 2019

City staff recently made a presentation to city council on their new Strategic Regional Marketing Plan.

I think that their logo is kind of clever.

They start with the fact that three cities dominate the region:

Then they join them into one combined presentation:

In the spirit of truthfulness maybe the white square in the middle should be black to represent the economic black hole that we live in.

Their subtext could include:

  • Spend a night in El Paso, we have the highest hotel motel tax rate in the state of Texas.
  • Buy a home in El Paso, we have the second highest homestead property tax rate of the 50 largest cities in the United States
  • Come to Juarez, most people don’t get killed

Las Cruces is looking pretty good.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »