Remember when the machine was pitching those Quality of Life bonds? Some of us were afraid that all that new debt would hit us in our tax bills.
Not so, said former City of El Paso Chief Financial Officer Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria, in this story in El Paso Inc. from 2012.
As El Paso taxpayers look ahead to the Nov. 6 quality of life bond election, some are asking how the city can pay for all those projects and everything else without imposing huge tax increases.
The city’s chief financial officer, Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria, confidently says it can.
. . .
The quality of life bonds will be sold not all at once, but over seven to 10 years, starting with $33 million in 2014 with the first payments the following year.
Meanwhile, the city’s older debt will be dropping rapidly.
Over that time, the city’s tax rate, now at 66 cents per $100 valuation, will rise by only 5 cents, she says, peaking for two years before starting to decline.
Well, see, that was four years ago. So our tax rate should be starting to decline about now.
Ha!
Do you have a current statement from the city chief financial officer showing the current tax rate, the debt reduction, and when the rate of decline begins?
Of course not. Everybody in City government wants to pretend it’s all good. They’re going to keep whistling till the ship sinks.