I tried to get you a decent DA. But that man does not want to give up his current job. I know he thinks he can do bigger and better things where he is at now. That is all nonsense. I remember one-time I was at a trade show I... Max Powers

Here is the city’s own chart that shows what they want us to believe the tax rate will be if a $940 million bond is approved by the voters:

Contrary to what we are hearing from the city the chart shows a significant increase in taxes.

Note that even without the new bonds it won’t be until the year 2031 before we have paid enough money on already existing debt for the tax rate to go down.

We deserve better

Brutus

The latest Donald Trump controversy fully exposes an ugly truth about some Americans. Accepting that Trump’s approval ratings […]

There was a very real fear that if Rep. Joe Moody had decided to claim his spot at DA, the rest of Texas would forget El Paso is a part of the state. Moody is by fart the only member... Brad Kanus

Part of the way our police department people are trying to justify their $287 million portion of the bond being considered is that they will try to get 60% of their sworn officers assigned to patrol duty.

Evidently they spend the rest of their time doing administrative work.

The 60% number comes from a national organization that recommends that level for larger police departments.

It seems that El Paso is below that number and if we give them a lot of money they will somehow come up to standard.

We deserve better

Brutus

As expected, notorious drug dealer El Chapo aka Joaquín Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. El […]

The city does not have to go through with building the multipurpose performing arts and entertainment center (commonly referred to as the arena).

In The bond election can be revoked we pointed out a state law that allows the voters the option of cancelling the authority to issue previously approved bonds.

Shouldn’t city council put the issue to a test?

If enough voters decide to revoke the bonds then the center cannot be built unless another election occurs where the voters approve it.

If there are not enough votes to revoke the bonds then the voters would have spoken and the city should build the center.

Sounds simple enough

We would also avoid the mounting costs of litigation.

The statute is found in chapter 1252 of the Texas Government Code.

Contact your city representative and ask them to vote to call the election.  You should also ask the mayor.

We deserve better

Brutus

Yesterday I caused an uproar on one of my social media channels because I dared to challenge the […]

You'd think if another bond issue was going to the voters that someone would have called Bonart and Grossman to ask what they'd like to have paid for. But they didn't do that, did they... Bonart could have had taxpayers... Brad Kanus

As part of the city’s 2020 budget process this slide was included to tell us what their legal department did last year:

Note that they tell us that they processed 5,469 open records requests.

They seem to be proud of the fact that they got the Texas attorney general to support denying release of information on 482 of them.

They could of told us that they handled the requests so well that on average they responded within X days, thus providing good service and promoting transparency.

Instead they focused on telling us how often they were able to deny information.

We deserve better

Brutus

Last November, Beto on the heels of a "good" loss and Vero winning her congressional seat, the sky was the limit. But something happened. More ballsy women who do not give a phuck also won their races. One woman who lives about 2,200 miles from the border gets more airtime... Max Powers

For Donald Trump the immigration issue is not about saving U.S. jobs or keeping the country safe. Trump […]

This slide comes from the city’s preliminary budget presentations for 2020:

Note that they plan to stabilize our tax base next year.  That will be hard to do.

They plan to expand the downtown efforts, talk to the other local governments, and work on incentive policies.

In other words they haven’t figured out how to do it yet.

We deserve better

Brutus

Immigration has been the issue throughout the history of the United States. Immigration made the nation. Immigration facilitated […]

Trump Administration Finally Wins a Sanctuary City Grant Condition Case


Source: Trump Administration Finally Wins a Sanctuary City Grant Condition Case

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Reason Magazine Immigration Feed

My New Washington Post Op Ed on How Federalism Became Great Again on the Left


Source: My New Washington Post Op Ed on How Federalism Became Great Again on the Left

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Reason Magazine Immigration Feed

Max Grossman sent this in:

The El Paso Times and KTSM are reporting that the City of El Paso wants to raise our property taxes by $0.04, to a total of $0.88 per every $100 of valuation. I have taken the liberty of updating the City’s property tax chart to show what this new increase will look like. The City will have raised our property tax by 33% in only seven years (!!!), far beyond the other local taxing entities. This is in spite of the fact that our population is not only flat, but actually declining. As we know, El Paso has the second highest homestead property tax among the fifty largest cities in the United States–and that is before the proposed tax hike.

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We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

Trump's Census Surrender Hints at the Real Reason He Tried to Add a Citizenship Question


Source: Trump's Census Surrender Hints at the Real Reason He Tried to Add a Citizenship Question

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Reason Magazine Immigration ...

Trump?s Cruelty and Mexico?s Duty

There?s a right way and a wrong way to deal with the immigration crisis. Guess which the American president is choosing.
Source: [url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/opinion/trump-immigration-mex...

I hope you enjoy RumpToons No: 141!