Let’s take a stroll down memory lane.
El Paso used to be a growing city. From 2010 to 2012, El Paso grew 3.5 percent. Rampant violence drove juarenses here. Base realignment brought troops.
But that was then.
This is now. From 2012 to 2017, El Paso’s population has grown by less than 1.5 percent.
In 2012, El Paso passed the Quality of Life bonds.
Now, El Paso’s population growth has flatlined. The costs of the QoL projects have ballooned. The promised economic benefit that the QoL projects were supposed to create hasn’t come. Property taxes for El Paso homeowners increased by ten percent this year, and the fees for every municipal service have also gone up.
(The City is charging people to visit Dr. Noe’s new soccer fields.)
Maybe we’re contractually obligated to build those Quality of Life bond projects. That’s what the bonds advocates’ lawyers say. But we don’t have to build them now. Remember, at one time, the projects were scheduled for a fifteen year rollout, but City Council decided to push it to ten.
If City Council has the power to change the rollout schedule, why don’t they change it now?
Let’s wait for some of that economic development they promised us.
Let’s get some relief from the punishing property taxes.
Sure, $180 million won’t buy as much arena in five or ten years. But it’s not like our current City Council would limit themselves to the amount the voters approved, anyway. And if we spend a little less for a worthless arena, I’m okay with that, too.
Memory Lane? You mean before the B.C. (before Cook) era where we actually had one of the most fiscally sound and financially responsible towns in Texas and possibly most of the nation during the 911/recession era? You mean during that time that taxes and fees and our city debt was noticeably lower than it is now? You mean when the streets would occasionally get swept (l live in the very central part of town) before we had a City Manager. l can;t remember the last time l saw a street sweeper. With “progress” like this, who needs enemies….or a wallet?