FACT OR FICTION
FICTION
"The city of El Paso has not increased property taxes since 2020, and for the upcoming budget, the city is recommending a significant property tax reduction. This year, the city council will be reducing taxes and providing a savings for all residents by reducing the budget by millions."
- Isabel Salcido and Claudia Rodriguez
FACT
The City tax rate dipped but property tax bills will still go up. The proposed 2023 budget, calls for a 4.49 cent decrease in the city tax rate, netting around $19.3 million in savings to taxpayers. However, since the average home value increased 13.3%, property taxes will still increase about $82 annually on average.
While a lower property tax of 86.2 cents per $100 in property valuation is a decrease from the previous 90.7 cents, it does not offset the rise in valuations… so your property tax bill still saw a significant increase.
A “no-new-revenue-tax-rate” of 82.3 cents would have to have been approved to maintain your bill at the current rate.
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FICTION
“We are recommending almost $20 million less in the City's budget. We believe this tax relief will help our taxpayer and continue our efforts to fully recover as a community.”
- Tommy Gonzalez
FACT
But…“The FY2022-2023 All Funds Budget of $1.16 billion shows an increase of $94.4 M from the prior year.” Last year's adopted budget was $1,067,475,828. This year's proposed budget is $1,161,899,434."
The FY2023 Proposed Budget Book (which bears Tommy Gonzalez signature) says,
“The 2023 budget will raise more total property taxes than last year's budget by $21,316,148 or 6.0%, and of that amount $4,392,638 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year.”
