County Commissioners Not “Raising” Your Taxes for Their Raises, But…

Image courtesy of epcounty.com

Several weeks ago the County Commissioners and County Judge voted themselves a raise:  Escobar saw a $14,422 pay increase with her salary going from $87,578 to $102,000. County Commissioners saw a $26,569 pay increase from $62,681 to $89,250.  Outrage ensued and many of you emailed, called, tweeted and facebooked the County Commissioners.  In response to the outrage, Veronica Escobar wrote a letter where she stated:  “Finally, you should know that we will be adopting either the effective tax rate or be going below the current tax rate (for a tax decrease) this year again. If we do the latter, many El Pasoans will again this year see a reduction on their tax bill from the County.”  See, it doesn’t matter that they gave themselves HUGE raises, your taxes are going to go down!  Sure, that may be true, but:

1.  On September 15th they removed the cost-of-living adjustments for retired county employees. “Haggerty told KFOX14 the decision to cut COLAs for retired county employees will save the county’s retirement fund upwards of $30 million over a 15-year-span.” (You can read the KFOX story here).
2. Also on September 15th the County Commissioners started considering lowering the number of paid time-off days employees receive annually.  Haggerty was in favor of reducing the days. Stout stated that “We are in the public sector, and so part of our recruiting ability comes with the fact that we offer benefits. The private sector, they can attract people with money, and so we don’t want to lose that recruiting tool.” (You can read the KFOX story here).  Interesting that they raised their own salaries to attract better candidates but are looking to REDUCE vacation days while at the same time acknowledging that the County does not pay as much.
3. On Monday, the County Commissioners approved a tax increase for UMC.  The court approved a 1.4 cent property tax increase for UMC, which amounts to approximately $17 more a year on a $123,000 home.  We find this one to be the MOST disingenuous of all of the things the County Commissioners have done.  Veronica Escobar has repeatedly stated that the County is not raising taxes.  In fact, the article announcing the UMC tax increase even reiterated that the County isn’t raising your taxes.  However, the UMC budget is approved by the County Commissioners; the UMC budget is part of the County Budget.  So, YES, the County Commissioners did just raise your taxes.

We are incredibly disappointed and concerned with the way the County Commissioners have gone about giving themselves these raises.  They keep reminding us that their raises are not going to increase our property taxes while, at the same time, cutting money and incentives for others in the county.  They pat themselves on the back that THEY didn’t raise property taxes while they approve the highest property tax rate they can for UMC. Finally, as we stated in a previous article, the County Commissioners MUST advertise the raises.  Under pressure, Veronica Escobar stated that the notice would be published in El Paso Inc.  We have checked every week since then and STILL have not seen the raises posted. Have you?

 

 

The Will of The Voters and Judge Mike Herrera

Judge Mike Herrera was reprimanded by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct in February for, among other things, keeping his divorce case in his own court for months. He received the state’s second-severest sanction and has ordered Herrera to seek six hours of “additional education.”  According to the El Paso Times, “Seana Willing, executive director of the Commission on Judicial Conduct, said the only more serious punishment the commission could have given would be to begin a process that could end with a judge’s removal.”  Was the more harsh punishment not pursued because his actions did not merit it?  Probably not.  According to Seana Willing the harsher punishment wasn’t pursued, “Because we elect our judges, it’s not going to be easy to reverse the will of the voters,” she said.”  Anyone else see the issue with this logic?  The “will of the voters” did not know any of this information about Judge Mike Herrera when he was elected.  Who knows what the “will of the voters” is now that this information is available – nobody has asked them.

But wait, it gets even better (worse?).  “On at least five occasions, the El Paso County Council of Judges has paid lawyers to support one of its own in a practice that a higher Texas court has called ‘blatantly improper.'”  According to the El Paso Times, on at least five occasions, TAX PAYER dollars were used to pay lawyers to file motions on behalf of Judge Mike Herrera challenging his removal from cases that were being handled by lawyer Angelica Carreon-Beltran (the lawyer who was representing his wife in the divorce). “The commission also sanctioned Herrera for his behavior when Carreon-Beltran tried to have her other cases removed from Herrera’s court, claiming she couldn’t get a fair hearing before the judge. As evidence of bias, she cited the judge’s claim that she had participated in a break-in at one of his properties.”

So, this Judge keeps his own divorce case in his court for months, used tax payer money to hire lawyers to fight removal of cases from his court and accused his wife’s lawyer of a break-in.  Oh, and he filed his campaign finance reports late in 2012. You tell us, Will of the Voters, what is say you now?  We agree with the County Commissioners that funding for the defense of judges facing recusal should be removed from the budget, too bad they can’t take it away now.

Ask What El Paso Is Doing For You

In his January 20, 1961 inaugural speech JFK stated “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”  While we don’t disagree with this sentiment, at some point you do need to ask what your country can do for you.  Or, more specifically, what your elected officials are doing for you.  Between the City and the Hospital District, El Paso has over a BILLION dollars in Outstanding Tax Supported Debt. $22 million dollars disappears out of Tax Payer pockets and Joyce Wilson STILL hasn’t told us who is responsible and, other than a ‘pretty please’ letter, City Council isn’t doing anything to compel her to do so. Water and Electric bills are going up this year AND El Paso wages are, according to the El Paso times, “ranked 331st out of 342 large counties in the United States, and ranked well below the national weekly average of $974”.  El Pasoans are groaning under the burden.  Is it any wonder our children are leaving El Paso to find jobs?

We think that it is time to REALLY start asking what our elected officials are doing for us. Instead of spending their time talking about the price of Chihuahua tickets, trying to block FOI requests, squabbling among themselves or allowing contract extensions for CEO’s who have lied, maybe they should focus on improving the quality of life for their constituents.  Maybe they should be trying to attract new businesses and new jobs to the area.  Maybe they should actually be repaving roads, finishing plazas and fixing and building pools. Maybe they should be doing the job we elected them to do.

Maybe they just need to be reminded.  So, write them a note or give them a call, they are probably waiting to hear from you:

Mayor Oscar Leeser: 915-212-0021, mayorleeser@elpasotexas.gov

District 1 Rep. Peter Svarzbein: 915-212-0001, district1@elpasotexas.gov

District 3 Rep. Emma Acosta: 915-212-0003, district3@elpasotexas.gov

District 4 Rep. Carl Robinson: 915-212-0004, district4@elpasotexas.gov

District 5 Rep. Michiel Noe: 915-212-0005, district5@elpasotexas.gov

District 6 Rep. Claudia Ordaz: 915-212-0006, district6@elpasotexas.gov

District 7 Rep. Lily Limon: 915-212-0007, district7@elpasotexas.gov

District 8 Rep. Cortney Niland: 915-212-0008, district8@elpasotexas.gov

Veronica Escobar, County Judge:  (915) 546-2098, CountyJudge@epcounty.com

Carlos Leon, Precinct 1:  (915) 546-2014, Commissioner1@epcounty.com

David Stout, Precinct 2:  (915) 546-2111, Commissioner2@epcounty.com

Vincent Perez, Precinct 3:  (915) 546-2144, commissioner3@epcounty.com

Andrew Haggerty, Precinct 4: (915) 546-2044, commissioner4@epcounty.com