Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) number 5 encompasses all of Downtown, the western part of the Segundo Barrio, and a portion of Central El Paso. Any incremental increase in tax revenue among the properties there is reinvested into the TIRZ rather than collected by the City for its General Fund. TIRZ 5 funds are supposed to be for improving the infrastructure of the area and addressing blight.
But now the City is hijacking TIRZ 5 funds and reallocating them for the Debt Plaza that is planned for Interstate 10. This past March 3, our City Council voted 7-1 to contribute $561,001 of TIRZ 5 funds toward the $10,561,001 cost for the design of the Debt Plaza, with only Rep. Limon dissenting.
MAYOR “STACKS THE DECK“
We previously reported that on April 29, 2025, the Mayor appointed or reappointed seven loyalists to the Board of TIRZ 5, obviously in preparation for a series of Debt Plaza votes.
This coming Tuesday, the Mayor is reappointing Steve Ortega and Gilbert Izquierdo and appointing for the first time Mario Porras. They will serve alongside Jonathan Escalante, Ed Houghton, Robert Monarez, Michelle Esparza, Martin Morgades, and Arlene Carroll.
Thus the Board will remain firmly under the Mayor’s control and reliably vote to allocate funds for the Debt Plaza and any other project the Oligarchs desire, no matter what the public at large thinks.
STEVE ORTEGA
Everyone knows that Ed Houghton is the leading proponent of the Debt Plaza and so it should come as no surprise that the Mayor appointed him to the TIRZ 5 Board less than three months after assuming office.
But then there is Steve Ortega, who has done more financial harm to our community than any single person we can think of.
Ortega was instrumental in providing us with our Ballpark (after demolishing City Hall), transportation improvements (like trolleys that go nowhere), and a new “revitalization” strategy (e.g. displacement and mass demolition in our urban barrios).
It is no wonder that Ortega got only 25.68% of the vote in the runoff election of June 15, 2013, when the people of El Paso rejected his bid for Mayor and ran him out of politics.
But he did not go away.
Ortega served as a lobbyist for Sun Jupiter Holdings LLC, which worked to transfer control of El Paso Electric to a group of Wall Street investors.
Why would an attorney specializing in probate, estate and family law be entrusted with lobbying for a $4.3 billion power company deal? Because he is plugged into the Oligarchy like your toaster is plugged into your kitchen plug socket!
And by the way, have your electric bills gotten any cheaper?