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We deserve better
Brutus
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Posted by Brutus
Helen Marshall sent us this:
Alice talks to the Cheshire Cat:
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
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Posted by Brutus
The superintendent of the Ysleta Independent School District was featured in an El Paso Times article the other day.
What they wrote when quoting the superintendent goes a long way explain by example one of the problems with our local governments.
They wrote:
The largest project remains the $93 million renovation of Eastwood High School, though the price tag is nearly $20 million more than what was proposed this spring.
Under the May proposal, YISD would have completely rebuilt the school. The new plan would renovate 85 percent of it but at a higher caliber, De La Torre said, offering the analogy of a model home’s upgrades versus the standard home buyers end up getting.
“What we were getting was the base price,” he said. “We weren’t getting the marble; we were getting the Formica.”
Not only do these people want $430 million of your money but they are publicly stating that they want our public schools to be luxurious. His statement was not accidental. The Times reported this:
Under the May proposal, YISD would have completely rebuilt the school. The new plan would renovate 85 percent of it but at a higher caliber, De La Torre said, offering the analogy of a model home’s upgrades versus the standard home buyers end up getting.
The district needs to understand that El Paso is one of the poorest of the major cities while having the 5th highest taxes of America’s 50 largest cities. Many citizens cannot even afford their own home. They get taxed through their landlords and in tragic twist of circumstances do not qualify for property tax exemptions. Yes the poor are disadvantaged from a property tax perspective.
The thought of building fancy school buildings when utilitarian ones will do when El Paso is in the economic situation that it is in is foolish.
The article showed the superintendent intending to buy the voters.
He quoted Hughes: “Not everybody is going to get everything they want, but everybody is going to get something that they want.”
And then:
Hughes’ job ended after the trustees approved the bond issue, but De La Torre said he is considering hiring other consultants to help push the proposal forward.
Our school officials could get into trouble if they use taxpayer money to advocate for this bond issue.
We deserve better
Brutus
2 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
This is sad.
With all the hope that the Brio system brought ridership is down significantly across Sun Metro’s system.
The mass transit director’s presentation from their July 2015 board meeting was attached to their agenda for the meeting.
The numbers are for the first three quarters of their physical year (ending May, 2015).
What we can see is an almost 15% decrease in ridership for the first three fourths of the year. Costs per trip are up 12%. Safety as well as on time service both deteriorated.
The buses run on natural gas. Gas prices have been declining, yet our costs are still higher.
We deserve better
Brutus
5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The “penny swap” initiative proposed by the EPISD went to the voters and was approved.
Taxpayers will not pay more money because of this but the state will contribute about $9 million more to the district each year.
That means we will be paying down our bond debt by about $4 million less each year. According to a recent article in the Times:
The district is expected to pay off its debt on time despite the changes, EPISD interim Chief Financial Officer Art Martin told the El Paso Times this week.
If the voters had rejected the initiative their tax bills would have gone down. Instead they voted to keep their bills the same and take $9 million more a year from the state.
The district took a gamble when they unilaterally lowered the interest and sinking fund tax rate by the same amount that they wanted to raise the maintenance and operations rate. Now they are telling us that they will find a way to fund bringing debt payments back to their former rate.
We’ll see.
We deserve better
Brutus
2 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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