CITY TO INCREASE PROPERTY TAX 4.3%, MAYOR BREAKS CAMPAIGN PROMISE
Yesterday our City Council held a Special Meeting and under agenda item 3 voted 8-0 to introduce an ordinance setting the tax rate at $0.759649 per $100 of property valuation.…
CITY BUDGET FOR FY 2026 INCLUDES 6.5% PROPERTY TAX INCREASE!
City Manager Dionne Mack and CFO Robert Cortinas presented their preliminary budget for FY 2026 and it comes with a 6.5% property tax increase. That works out to $1,701 for…
CITY TO FACE $29.2M IN BUDGET DEFICITS THROUGH FY 2029
City CFO Robert Cortinas made a presentation at the March 17 Work Session under item 2, indicating the City is projecting a total budget deficit of $29.2 million over the…
CITY IS ON RIGHT COURSE, BUT COUNTY SPENDING IS OUT OF CONTROL: MAX GROSSMAN
Max Grossman: Guest columnist, Published 7:01 a.m. MT Aug. 15, 2024 Our city and county have adopted opposite approaches to borrowing and taxation. While the mayor and majority of City…
CITY COMMITS TO NO TAX INCREASE FOR SECOND YEAR IN A ROW!
Thanks to the financial acumen and wizardry of CFO Robert Cortinas and Interim City Manager Cary Westin, yesterday our City Council was presented with a budget for FY 2024-25 that…
CITY CFO ROBERT CORTINAS IS THE BEST CANDIDATE FOR CITY MANAGER
We just learned that from a pool of 80 candidates for the position of City Manager, the Mayor and City Representatives have narrowed their search to four finalists, all of…
CITY ISSUED $300 MILLION IN DEBT IN 2016 WITH ZERO OR LITTLE PRINCIPAL FOR A DECADE
This past March 25, City CFO Robert Cortinas gave a PowerPoint presentation before City Council in which he discussed his 5-Year Financial Forecast. On page 71, he cited $300 million…
CITY CFO CORTINAS RECOMMENDS ISSUING NO DEBT UNTIL FY 2026
This morning, the City’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Cortinas made a budget presentation to City Council under agenda item 3 in which he recommended issuing zero debt not only this…
CITY DEBT APPROACHING $3 BILLION!
According to page 79 of the FY 2023 Budget Book, our City owes $2,257,059,064, of which $851,565,991 is principal and interest on ten certificates of obligation that were issued without…
CITY BUDGET TO INCREASE TO $1.3B FOR FY 2024, HERNANDEZ WANTS MORE DEBT
Cindy Ramirez of El Paso Matters published a substantive report on the ongoing budget talks in City Council. To summarize, Interim City Manager Cary Westin and CFO Robert Cortinas proposed…