El Paso holds first budget planning session of 2025

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The City of El Paso held their first ever "pre-budget strategic planning session" for city council.

City representatives met with city departments to understand the full scope of the city as they start the first phase of budget planning.

"Our budget is one of the most important things that they will vote on. It really helps us to be able to guide our programs," said City Manager Dionne Mack.

City Council met on Monday to discuss the direction of the budget for the next 5 years, with a large portion dedicated to the increase in minimum wage. Mack raised minimum wage for city employees by 20% this past year, accounting for $14 million of the city budget, but said it would be at no cost to taxpayers this year.

"It really is about every department making changes and adjustments so that increase is not a new cost in totality to our tax base. A lot of what we have historically done is we've held certain positions vacant, and that's allowed us to fund others, and we continue to do that in terms of prioritization."

Another big part of the meeting on Monday was the projected property tax revenue over the next 5 years. City CFO Robert Cortinas called it the largest revenue fund for the city's general fund at 42%.

The city said they wanted to get ahead of the curve with the budget, especially with an almost entirely new city council.