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I wish to thank Mayor Renard Johnson for repeatedly promising to lower our property tax during his election campaign.
When Dee Margo ran for office, he merely promised to “hold the line on taxes” (before presiding over the steepest tax increases in the history of El Paso), but Mayor Johnson emphatically promised to lower our property tax!
Achieving this will require superhuman ingenuity.
The city must still issue nearly a half-billion dollars in GO debt from the 2019 Public Safety Bond and the 2022 Community Progress Bond. Moreover, the city is short about $35 million on its budget for streets, which are in appalling condition and which Mayor Johnson promised to fix. Add to that the pressure from police and fire to increase the city’s contribution to their pension plan by at least $5 million per year. And then there is the matter of keeping up with promised annual raises for the more than 6,000 city employees. And of course, there is the $35 million the city proposed contributing to the Deck Plaza during a staff presentation on April 15.
I cannot wait to see Mayor Johnson overcome these challenges, despite the impossible math, and to learn about his brilliant plan during the upcoming budget discussions to lower our property tax so that it will be easier for El Pasoans to pay their bills and support their families.
Max Grossman, El Paso
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