The city budget is going to take a big hit because of the COVID-19 situation.
Two of our city representatives believe that the big quality of life projects should be postponed if not cancelled.
Shouldn’t they also be looking at the recent public safety bonds?
Can we afford a 90 million dollar police headquarters or a 30 million dollar fire headquarters?
Isn’t this 413 million dollars that we can avoid spending?
We deserve better
Brutus
4 Comments | 
City government | 
Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Here it comes:
It looks like EPISD will have to raise 11 million more dollars next year to service their debt. That will still leave them 1.3 million dollars short.
Where will the money come from?
The chart tells you. Local revenue is their answer. Doesn’t that mean property tax increases?
If so the penny swap was a trick.
We deserve better
Brutus
5 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
I’m not a health care professional. I am not qualified to make decisions about what we should and should not do about the COVID-19 situation. I still wonder if closing the schools is the right thing to do.
Children up to the age of 19 are 24% of our US population.
These two statements from the United States Centers for Disease Control are interesting:
Pediatric cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have been reported. However, there are relatively fewer cases of COVID-19 among children compared to cases among adult patients.1-5
and
As of March 8, 2020, just one pediatric death was reported among confirmed COVID-19 cases in China,15 and as of March 15, 2020, none of the 1,625 deaths associated with COVID-19 in Italy were among children aged <18 years.2 In Spain, no pediatric deaths were reported as of March 16, 2020.5 In the U.S., as of April 2, 2020, there have been three deaths among children with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection that have been reported to CDC, but the contribution of SARS-CoV-2 infection to the cause of death in these cases is unclear.4
It seems that school age youngsters have an easier time with COVID-19 than infants and seniors. In fact according to the CDC they are seeing that some kids with COVID-19 don’t even develop symptoms:
There have been multiple reports to date of children with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.3,6,14,15 In one study, up to 13% of pediatric cases with SARS-CoV-2 infection were asymptomatic.16 The prevalence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and duration of pre-symptomatic infection in children are not well understood, as asymptomatic individuals are not routinely tested.
Should the schools really be closed? I would appreciate your thoughts.
We deserve better
Brutus
23 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
It’s Saturday.
What’s on your mind?
We deserve better
Brutus
20 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Those El Paso businesses that use locally owned banks seem to have done better getting assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program than those dealing with the national banks.
It makes sense. The fate of our local businesses is more important to our local banks than it is to the national mega-banks. It also helped to have decision making authority right here where evaluations could be made without having to go up endless chains of command.
We owe the local banks and their employees our gratitude.
This was better
Brutus
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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