[[{“value”:”
They are trying to fool us again.
The City issued a press release July 3 claiming the preliminary budget for FY 2026 maintains “a structurally balanced approach with no increase to the property tax rate.”
To add insult to injury, the next sentence begins “We’re committed to transparency.”
Oh, really?
Then why does the press release omit the 6.5% property tax increase resulting from a 5.60% rise in property valuations?
And why did our Mayor, who campaigned on lowering our property tax, fail to mention this during his feckless comments yesterday?
The City’s messaging is a repeat of Tommy Gonzalez, who repeatedly lied to the public about the property tax by citing decreases in property tax rates, even as valuations skyrocketed and our property tax burden increased.
In August 2022, Gonzalez audaciously told El Paso Matters that the City was providing “tax relief,” even as our taxes shot up. That was immediately followed by a City report spewing the same bullshit.
Vic Kolenc of the El Paso times was so irritated that he ripped the City Manager and set the record straight in a scathing op-ed.
Gonzalez was fired less than seven months later.
We already miss the leadership of Oscar Leeser, Brian Kennedy, and Cary Westin, who gave us two years in a row of zero tax increases and never once misled the public on policy matters.
The good news is the media will can longer be finessed. Adam Powell got it right in a report published this morning, and so did KTSM. They are not parroting the City’s talking points but instead focusing on the 6.5% tax increase.
We will continue to keep the media informed about financial issues with laser precision and combat the mendacious propaganda issuing from our local taxing entities.
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