Council discusses how to allocate additional $3.2 million in revenue
The City of El Paso has an additional $3.2 million to work with for the upcoming fiscal year’s budget.
City staff originally forecast a 2.9 percent increase in taxable property, based on valuations conducted every three years. This year, a new valuation was conducted, increasing taxable property by about four percent. The change in valuations resulted in an additional $3.2 million in tax revenue available in the general fund.
“Council has the option to either, one: fund additional requests; two: lower the tax rate; three: put money towards the fund balance so they’ve got some options and flexibility,” said City of El Paso Chief Financial officer Robert Cortinas.
The City is also proposing adding a utility sales tax to natural gas and electric bills for residential customers.
If the sales tax is approved, Cortinas said, it would generate an additional $3 million a year. However, this would not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2019. This means the City would lose out on about $1 million for the upcoming fiscal year. This money would go to help fund fire department equipment and vehicles.
City council unanimously approved allocating $1 million from the $3.2 million to go to the fire department on Monday.
Council also approved $700,000 from the $3.2 million go to savings. That leaves city council with approximately $1.5 million. The City is still weighing in on how to spend it. It could either go toward paying for pensions, the city savings, or reducing the proposed tax rate.
The proposed rate is $.843332, which is about a 4-cent increase from this year’s rate. That means property taxes will increase by about $40 for every $100,000 your home is worth. Cortinas said allocating the additional $1.5 million to reduce the tax rate, would only lower it by a fraction, which would likely not be noticeable.
