KVIA reports that Mayor Dee Margo vetoed the tax increase that City Council approved.
El Paso Mayor Dee Margo on Tuesday evening vetoed the city’s budget resolution which was passed by the City Council earlier in the day.
In his veto letter, Margo said the city had implemented significant tax increases each of the past two years and saida third straight year of increases would “go against basic fiscal oversight and restraint.”
The council passed a budget that included a tax rate of 90.7 cents per every $100 valuation of your home.
Margo wanted a rate that was no more than 86.3 cents.
He said that lower rate would be enough to overcome a shortfall of $7 million resulting from state legislation and the migrant influx which has affected bridge wait times and impacted state sales tax revenue.
Apparently, Mayor Margo made no reference to the Certificates of Obligation the City committed the taxpayers to over his tenure in the mayoralty. All of a sudden, Mayor Margo is a fiscal conservative.
If the mayor wanted to forestall a tax increase, he should have vetoed all those gratuitous projects he endorsed. He should have lobbied against the additional costs of all those Quality of Life bond projects. He should have vetoed the water parks. He should have dropped the “arena.”
And isn’t he violating (at least the spirit) of that loyalty oath he pushed through City Council? You know, no dissenting opinions are to be expressed in public?
I reckon Mayor Margo’s efforts are ham-handed politicking in his effort to get reelected. If you want to be a fiscal conservative, you have to do it on the front end, before the credit card bill comes due.
Hey; a Veto is a veto…less taxing than more tax.
PS: “we don’t need no more Stinken TAXES”…great movie line
Six votes overrides a veto, and I reckon the mayor lined those up before he pulled the red card out of his pocket.
Good politics
Two ways this plays out. Council overrides his veto. They look like villains, he looks like a hero for his reelction campaign. Other scenario. CAD does a revaluation and we see even further increases in the values of our homes. Either way, the city is going to get that money from us. Bunch of hypocrites in the El Paso Times building.