El Paso City Council approves $94 million capital funding plan

El Paso City Council approved a $94 million capital funding plan on Monday.

The plan includes funding for things like street safety improvements, the Reimagine Cohen project, spray park improvements, and a new visitor center at San Jacinto Plaza.

“We made a commitment to the community not only to fund these projects, but to actually complete them and move forward with them,” chief financial officer Robert Cortinas said.

More than $80 million of that funding will come from certificates of obligation. Certificates of obligation are a form of debt that doesn’t have to be approved by voters.

Some municipalities use certificates of obligation for emergencies, but the City of El Paso can use them to fund projects.

But the more debt that gets incurred, the more tax payers have to pay.

“The city works towards establishing a very conservative revenue budget, as well as an expenditure that matches up to that revenue on a year-to-year basis,” city engineer Sam Rodriguez said. “Every year, over the past three years, we’ve been able to replenish our fund balance with savings out of the operating budget. But typically, these type of projects would not be budgeted in through the operation costs.”