*NOTE: THIS REPORT IS FLAWED BECAUSE IT DOES NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE NO-NEW-REVENUE TAX RATE. TAX RATE ALONE IS NOT AN INDICATOR OF TAX BURDEN.
Dear Media and Friends,
The following four City representatives assumed office on June 27, 2017 and are up for re-election this November: Alexsandra Annello, Cassandra Hernandez, Sam Morgan and Henry Rivera. Here are their voting records on the three property tax increases during their tenure:
1. August 22, 2017, City Council agenda items 25.3 and 25.4. City Council voted 8-0 to increase the City property tax from $0.759656 to $0.803433 per $100 of valuation, an increase of 4.2%.
2. August 21, 2018, City Council agenda items 28.2 and 28.3. City Council voted 7-1 to increase the City property tax from $0.803433 to $0.843332 per $100 of valuation, an increase of 7.2%. Rep. Svarzbein, who was up for reelection the following November, dissented although he had voted for every single project that pressured our City budget.
3. August 13, 2019, City Council agenda items 3.1 and 6.1. City Council voted 8-0 to increase the City property tax from $0.843332 to the rollback rate of $0.907301 per $100 of valuation, an increase of 6.4%. The Mayor vetoed the increase and his veto was overruled August 20 under City Council agenda item 28.1 on a 6-2 vote, with Reps. Morgan and Rivera dissenting (even though they had both voted for the 6.4% increase). The City told the media, in an act of pure cowardice, that part of the reason for this increase was the need to fund a memorial for the August 3 shooting victims.
Thus, the four incumbents voted for all three City property tax hikes and have raised our rate by $0.147645 per $100 of valuation since assuming office, an increase of 19.44%. During that same period, the City population grew by less than 1%.
As a result of these increases and their impact on the City portion of our overall property tax, El Paso now has the second highest homestead property tax in the United States among the 50 largest cities.As
FULL DISCLOSURE: My friends and I are fully supporting Rep. Alexsandra Annello for re-election because she is by far the best candidate for her district in spite of her votes on the tax increases. She has shown herself to be fiscally responsible on many other issues, as she has opposed the $500M+ “Arena”, boondoggle TIRZes, and other wasteful projects. Moreover, she is a champion of transparency and holds herself to the highest ethical standard.
Max