They’ll do whatever it takes, and they don’t care how much it costs you.

Remember when everyone was celebrating all the new development going on in downtown El Paso? One of the big projects coming in was a downtown office tower. Hunt Companies, the proposed building’s owner, was supposed to move their offices into it by Spring, 2018.

Here’s the latest wrinkle, from El Paso Inc.

Hunt also provided more details about the high rise Hunt Companies plans to build at 601 N. Mesa, next door to Artspace El Paso Lofts, which is currently under construction. The office building would be the first built by a private-sector company in Downtown in more than three decades.

“It’s going to have to be a public-private partnership,” [CEO of Mountainstar Sports Group and executive vice president of Hunt Companies Josh] Hunt told attendees. “That is the only way the numbers work. We are in discussion with the city on trying to create that partnership so we can move forward with the project.”

It’s like the ballpark. The puppet masters are asking for tax dollars so they can compete against existing businesses which aren’t subsidized.

They’re trying to revitalize downtown. I get that. But towards what ends? Economic development? If that’s the goal, they’re taking the long way to get there.

Isn’t it time we got a little return for our investment? We’ve thrown a lot of money at downtown. The Plaza Theatre. Union Plaza. The ballpark. San Jacinto Plaza. Museums. The digital wall, whatever that is.

If it were their own money, City government would have stopped spending it a long time ago. Now they’re spending more of our money just trying to save face.

El Paso is a nice place to live, but I don’t think that our elected officials should be charging us for the privilege.