Big Surprise – Property Taxes May Be About To Rise In El Paso

El Paso is having trouble providing some basic services because certain departments are understaffed. Staffing them could cause a tax hike ...

During the pandemic, a lot of city employees were furloughed or laid off. Now, years later, many of those people have not been brought back or replaced and almost 1,400 positions remain vacant.

In the city parks and streets departments alone, 1 in 4 positions are open. 

Why Are So Many El Paso City Positions Vacant?

According to City Manager Dionne Mack, it's deliberate.

She said many of the vacancies have been a deliberate choice to keep down expenses in order to meet the City Council’s call the past two years for a no-new-revenue tax rate – the rate needed to raise the same amount of tax revenue from the same properties from the previous year. The general fund budget calls for keeping vacant $23.5 million in positions – or about 558 full-time equivalent jobs, records provided by the city show. - elpasomatters

According to El Paso Matters, here's the percentage of unfilled positions in different city departments:

• EPPD - 13.1%
• EPFD - 11.8%
• Sun Metro - 23.3%
• Parks and Rec - 31.9%
• Environmental Services - 22.5%
• Streets and Maintenance - 29%
• Public Health - 30%
• Aviation - 19.3%
• Animal Services - 25.8%
• Library - 14.6%

The City Manager has been trying to hire new employees and is looking at ways to keep the ones already on staff.  Meanwhile, El Pasoans are complaining about unanswered calls for street and sidewalk repair, trash cleanup and other issues.

Hiring more employees in the next year could mean higher property taxes, Mack said. - elpasomatters

Looks like it's, (again), pay up or shut up El Paso. Either we pay more property taxes ... we already pay the 3rd highest in Texas ... or we live with these issues.