At tomorrow’s Regular City Council Meeting, Representatives Kennedy, Fierro, and Canales are co-sponsoring item 30, which could sink the ill-fated arena project once and for all.
The item calls for “Discussion and action to direct the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance ordering an election on the November 5, 2024 uniform election date to permit voters to determine whether to revoke the City’s authority to issue the 2012 Quality of Life bonds that have not yet been sold or delivered; and to direct the City Manager and City Attorney to undertake all actions necessary to defease and/or redeem all or a portion of the outstanding 2012 Quality of Life bonds issued to fund the Multipurpose Performing Arts and Entertainment Facility project.”
If the item goes on the November ballot as expected, the voters will almost certainly kill the arena, the most deceptive, corrupt, and underfunded project in the history of El Paso.
Today Rep. Canales published a guest column in the El Paso Times in which he candidly admits “there is nowhere near the amount of funding required to deliver an ‘arena'” since “it would cost something in the range of $400-$500 million, not the $128 million remaining in unsold bonds.” He adds, “Even the $128 million in new debt would exert significant pressure on the city’s tax rate for years to come.”
He is perfectly correct.
It goes without saying that Rep. Cassandra Hernandez, her friend Joyce Wilson, and Tripper Goodman and his moneyed allies are going insane because their Sacred Cow is about to be slaughtered at the Altar of Common Sense.
If they want a downtown arena so badly and it is going to as profitable as they claim then they should raise the funds privately and build it themselves, and in a place that does not destroy history, require the use of eminent domain, or displace vulnerable El Pasoans.
We firmly believe that government should stay out of the entertainment business and adhere to its core duties and that local investors should stop demanding corporate welfare from the hard-working taxpayers of our city.
Please write to our Mayor and City Council and encourage them to support item 30 so we can vote to terminate the arena and prevent yet another tax increase.
mayor@elpasotexas.gov; district1@elpasotexas.gov; district2@elpasotexas.gov; district3@elpasotexas.gov; district4@elpasotexas.gov; district5@elpasotexas.gov; district6@elpasotexas.gov; district7@elpasotexas.gov; district8@elpasotexas.gov