by Max Grossman
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 voter approval between 2013 and 2021.
CFO Robert Cortinas and Interim City Manager Cary Westin recently told El Paso Matters that approximately $600 million of additional debt approved by the voters in past bond elections has yet to be issued.
According to page 25 of the City staff presentation of July 14, $448,455,636 of that will be issued between 2024 and 2027.
It’s worth remembering that Hernandez’s husband, Jeremy Jordan, was paid $20,000 by the El Paso Municipal Police Officer’s Association PAC to promote the bloated $413 million Public Safety Bond.
And Jordan’s business partner, Christopher Hernandez, founded the PAC that promoted the $272,480,000 Community Progress Bond, which consists entirely of stuff that should have been covered by the city General Fund.
So you can thank Jordan and his associates for helping to ram through most of the voter-approved debt that will soon be added to our City’s burden.
All told, our City will soon have a total debt of nearly $2.9 billion, and that is assuming that Rep. Cassandra Hernandez, who loves nothing better than to spend our money, does not get her way, since we just learned she wants another quality of life bond!
We may get through FY 2024 without a property tax hike, but major increases will be hard to avoid starting in FY 2025, especially given the expected higher interest rates on the $600 million in new debt to be issued.
Cortinas warns “There’s no way we can issue $600 million in the next five years and not have taxes go up.”