On Tuesday, KVIA aired an excellent report on the City’s outstanding non-voter-approved debt from certificates of obligation, but they misstated the figures.
According to KVIA, the City owes $851.1M in CO debt, including interest to be paid.
But those figures are from FY 2020 and were provided by the Texas Bond Review Board on page 38 of their annual report.
In fact, our City Council authorized another $93M in CO debt in April and $96M on Tuesday, adding $189M to the principal.
Thus, El Paso is now on the hook for more than $1.1 billion in CO debt, which is $730.1M plus interest.
That is $1,077 in CO debt for every man, woman and child in El Paso, which is more than seven times the per-capita CO debt held by residents of the five largest cities in Texas, on average.
KVIA will need to update its chart.
Our good Mayor stood up for the taxpayers and tried to stop the last CO issuance, and for this he was accused of insensitivity to “communities of color” by Rep. Cassandra Hernandez of District 3. See today’s report in El Chuqueno and yesterday’s Talk El Paso show for extensive coverage.