“Don’t Fix City Budget With More PSB Fees”

That’s the headline from a guest column in this week’s El Paso Inc.

It was written by outgoing board member David Nemir, Ph.D. He says

In 2012, the [City Council] formed a blue ribbon commission to analyze the revenue share model and to benchmark it against franchise fee and payment in lieu of tax models used for water utilities in other cities throughout Texas and the U.S. This resulted in a July 2013 report to City Council that concluded tht El Paso’s revenue share model is in line with other communities and is fair to both repayer and taxpayer.

Unfortunately, City Council chose to ignore this report, and in August 2014, increased the revenue transfer to the city by a whopping 30 percent, imposing an annual “street rental fee” on El Paso Water Utilities, advocating that this be raised by new fees on non-residential ratepayers, like churches, schools, and businesses.

When City Council imposes a dollar of pass-through fees to the ratepayers, zero cents of that dollar goes to meet water needs.

What it means is that City Council is trying to balance its fiscal profligacy on the backs of city ratepayers, who also happen to be taxpayers. City Council shafted us with a wild, unfunded, spending spree, and now they’re making us pay for it in a sneaky, underhanded, way, which is quickly becoming all too familiar to anyone who’s been paying attention.

City government thinks that you’re stupid. Like all artless liars, they think the solution is to keep lying. They should step up, admit they’re mistakes, and then go quietly hide in their rooms for the rest of their lives.

2 comments

  1. Agreed here…..What about that other article in the Inc…you know the one about how successful Brio is doing. I seem to remember you trashing it in a prior piece.

  2. The post where I said I wished Brio were more popular,or the one where I said it was just a bus? The more derogatory of the two was the first, probably, where I said it was just bus, and I posted that in response to the hype SunMetro was using to promote the service.

    I don’t think either was particularly derisive.

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