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Confusingly, there are two sets of figures presented in the backup to items 27-29 on the City Council Agenda for Tuesday, August 18.
City staff is recommending adopting the voter-approval tax rate of $0.809487 per $100 of property valuation, which is the highest tax rate permitted by Texas law without asking the voters for approval.
The owner of an average-valued single-family residence currently pays $1,751.61 in City tax, and this will rise by 7.5% to $1,883.43 if City Council adopts the voter-approval rate on Tuesday. The 7.5% figure was cited by El Paso Matters and has been repeated by other media.
However, the agenda backup also cites (repeatedly) the MEDIAN homestead values rather than the AVERAGE value of a single-family residence. Calculating with these figures, the increase is 11.0%, from $1,551.42 to $1,772.41.
Both sets of figures are reported on the state-mandated “NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
ON TAX INCREASE.”
Using the 7.5% figure has the effect of reducing the magnitude of the City tax increase and makes it seem less impactful.
WRITE TO THE MAYOR AND CITY REPS!
Please write to the Mayor and City Representatives and ask them to make budget cuts to prevent a tax increase. That would mean adopting the no-new revenue tax rate of $0.747490.
Please also consider speaking to agenda item 27 on Tuesday.
Remember that silence is consent!
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