In a teeming city that has seen its population increase by more than 130,000 in the last two decades to its present 679,000, the need to keep up with basic infrastructure is unending.
Now, members of the El Paso City Council, in passing a fiscal year 2022 budget, have responded to that need by approving a $476 million budget that will include a hefty $20 million to be used strictly for street resurfacing projects throughout the city.
The new budget also allots $3 million for a new traffic intersection safety program as well as any number of Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant projects.
Another $13 million will go for enhanced sports complex maintenance work, planned recreation and senior center upgrading projects, and facility improvements to the city’s libraries and museums.
The city in recent years has embraced an ambitious infrastructure improvement agenda that has seen the completion of more than 150 individual projects.
Priorities in the new budget in some ways reflect public sentiment. A survey conducted by the City of El Paso earlier this year indicated that respondents were most interested in seeing ongoing funding for street, community safety, and public health projects.
In a statement, City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said the new budget “does not change the property tax rate due to savings like the $21 million we refinanced in old debt.”
Gonzalez added that by not raising El Paso’s property tax rate, “the city aims to ease some of the pressure on taxpayers because of the ongoing financial uncertainty created by the pandemic.”
By Garry Boulard