Mayor Margo questions why City has been giving millions to the County every year since ’87

El Paso Mayor Dee Margo is questioning why the City of El Paso has been giving the County of El Paso a portion of its sales tax revenues since 1987. This past year the total was about $43 million.

Margo told ABC-7 all cities in Texas receive up to two cents of their sales tax back. The City of El Paso dedicates up to 25 percent of those two cents to the County.

“For whatever reason, our city government, in 1987, determined that they were going to give a quarter of our sales tax revenues to the County. We are the only city in the State of Texas where that occurs. Only,” said Margo, who called the discovery of the money being given to the County every year “a revelation.”

Reps. Henry Rivera and Sam Morgan also questioned the policy and asked what could be done to stop the “subsidies.”

“The City is struggling – day-to-day – to pay its bills,” said City Representative Sam Morgan, “What I’m hearing is that we need to bring more businesses here, we need to get our property values adjusted, we need this and that. Well, you know what, we need $42 million that we are using to subsidize the County.”

Margo said he would like to see the County step up on economic development. He believes the millions given to the County every year, should instead be spent on things like fixing the City’s roads, infrastructure and hiring more police.

The Mayor said he isn’t sure how to change the policy, but said it is something City officials are going to look into.

Robert Cortinas, the city’s Director of Management and Budget, thinks there may be another solution.

“The city manager talked about how it shouldn’t be a confrontational issue. But, how can we go about coming up with a creative idea about pushing something at the state legislature to try and get an increase in the overall sales tax. It is something we have talked to the council about over the last two years now,” Cortinas said.