City Hopes FDR-Style Spending Will Help During Recession

By ABC-7 Reporter Darren Hunt

EL PASO — President Franklin Roosevelt seems to be on the mind of city leaders as city council recently decided to incur a $73 million debt to pay for new infrastructure projects.

City officials said funding projects — such as new roads, highwaysand improved drainage infrastructure — during tough economic times is nothing new. Many believe that is how FDR got the country through theGreat Depression.

The city will issue Certificates of Obligation to private investors to raise most of the money. City officials said the federal government will match some of the money raised through the certificates.

“Taxes will go up and it’s no different than what this council has done in the past,” said City Representative Eddie Holguin.

Holguin, along withCity Representatives Melina Castro and Rachel Quintana,voted against the measure to borrow the money to pay for the new projects.

City Manager Joyce Wilson and Mayor John Cook saw things differently.

“It’s a philosophical positionby three members of council who feel you should issue no debt without voter approval and I disagree with that,” said Cook.”I think the people elected us to make those decisions.”

Wilson said construction in the private, commercial and residential markets is slowing down and the new projects will keep firms going during the recession. “Keeping these firms in business by having them do public projects is actually not a bad thing,” she said, “It keeps the economy moving.”

The rest of the city council agreed. “We’ve found that in economic downturns in the past, the government steps in with public infrastructure projects,” said City Representative Eddie Holguin.

One example that stands out is Scenic Drive in west-central El Paso. The mountain roadwas paved for the first time in 1932 thanks to a program called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

It was put together byFDR to keep Americans out of work employed during thedepression era.

“That’s going to create a ton of jobs in this community [and provide] needed infrastructure,” said City Representative Steve Ortega.