City Reps. Alejandra Chavez, Ivan Niño, Art Fierro, and Chris Canales voted to increase the property tax on the average-valued home by 5.2% for FY2026 and 6.0% for FY2027.
Mathematically, the total amortized increase is a whopping 11.5%.
Thus the average city tax bill for a single-family residence rose from $1,597 in FY2025 to $1,781 in the current fiscal year, which began September 1.
In other words, the owner of an average-valued home, currently assessed at $232,669, is facing a city tax increase of $188 since FY2025. For a $500,000 home, the increase is $404, and that does not include the increases from the County, UMC, EPCC, and school districts.
Both Canales and Fierro had voted for the no-new-revenue tax rate in FY2024 and FY2025 but then voted for steep tax increases in FY2026 and FY2027, whereas Chavez and Niño joined City Council later, in January 2025, and then voted twice to increase our property tax.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank in Austin, recently published a study showing that between 2015 and 2025, spending by the City of El Paso grew from $839 million to $1.3 billion, representing an annual average growth rate of 4.26% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the average inflation rate was only 3.13%.
With the exception of FY2024 and FY2025, when Mayor Oscar Leeser and Reps. Brian Kennedy and Joe Molinar were pushing hard to restrain taxation, our City leaders have allowed the municipal government to grow much faster than necessary, even though our population is in decline.
The city reps who voted to increase our property tax insist they had no choice because the budgets have been too lean to cut. They blame the previous City Council for deferring critical spending until FY2026.
We do not buy their excuses and believe they are fiscal illiterates.
There are still tens of millions of dollars in waste and non-essential services that can be saved and numerous city positions that can be eliminated.
Vote for fiscal conservatives on November 3!