Dear Friends,
This past Friday, the El Paso Times published two letters to the editor under the heading “City officials forget their obligation to taxpayers.” They lament the City’s out-of-control deficit spending and sky-high taxes. Ironically, the letters appeared alongside the guest column by City Reps. Hernandez and Lizarraga promoting more deficit spending and higher taxation. The disconnect between these City reps and the taxpayers they are supposed to represent is alarming.
Max
City of El Paso double-talk is laughable
I see that city council is bent on bankrupting El Paso. I thought that fascism is only happening in Washington, D.C but it is happening everywhere.
The peoples’ voices are being drowned out by government officials who have forgotten who voted them into office. Their quest for power is all they desire. They want to steal our tax dollars to line their own pockets by giving themselves hefty raises while the rest of us can not afford to pay our property taxes or get a decent pay raise from our bosses.
They steal money to give their cronies jobs that they never finish. They use the certificates of obligations as an excuse to steal our tax dollars. In the meantime, we have empty buildings and houses all over town that no one is using and the city is losing thousands of tax dollars because taxes aren’t being paid on them.
Their double-talk is laughable and insulting to all citizens. They say that the tax rate will not be raised, but our homes’ value will go up. So now, the city will artificially raise values based on figures that they create. Enough is enough. El Pasoans wake up. Don’t let the thieves in the city steal our homes and money. Let us stop the corruption in this city.
John Padilla
Northeast El Paso
City officials forget their obligation to taxpayers
El Paso is racing to become the next Detroit or Chicago, making El Paso almost unaffordable and unlivable for low-income or retired taxpayers.
Our most recent water/storm drain bill was $115, an increase of about $35, not water, but fees. Interestingly, it’s the same as the average water bill in New Orleans, which has six times the annual rainfall of El Paso. Spending millions to try to eliminate some minor flooding, not even annually, is galactically stupid.
The stupid city council just overrode a mayor’s veto of a $96 million certificate of obligation, forgetting previousissues, like handing out candy at Halloween. El Paso, with a debt of near $2 billion, is the first of the six largest cities in Texas with a certificate of obligation.
El Paso has the second-highest property tax rate of the 50 largest cities in the USA, and the highest in Texas, with city taxes that increased by 39% since 2010.
The city council is only trumped by the enterprise managers that know nothing about saving money, led by the grossly overpaid city manager. These people forget their obligation to us taxpayers. We won’t forget you at election time.
Clyde Goodbar
West El Paso