City raises nearly $4 million during first year of downtown ballpark costs headed into opening day.

EL PASO, Texas -- A tax on hotel and motel stays has raised about $4 million to help cover the cost of the downtown ballpark.

As KFOX14 reported, voters approved increasing the tax on hotel and motel stays in 2012 to go toward the cost of Southwest University Park.

The city's comptroller said Tuesday the amount collected through March is $3,829,795.

As KFOX14 reported, that goes toward about $60 million the city is expected to cover with the tax money.

The increase raised the tax to 17.5 percent, making it the highest in the state.
Even at that level, the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown El Paso said the tax has not affected business.

Thats funny because KVIA reported that the HOT tax only raised 2.4 million.


http://www.kvia.com/video/only-on-abc7-s...s/32292844

The city will run a deficit for 10 years.

1 million was taken from the general fund this year to cover the short fall.


I told you so.

The City was supposed to run at a deficit for 30 to 40 years according to the naysayers. The higher than expected HOT monies has reduced that to 10 years. Then the City will get a better interest rate and that will go down even further.

It's a loan. You will run at a deficit in the beginning years. The HOT monies was more than expected. That shorten and lessen the money spent overall.

Is this where I write I told you so? Nah, not my style. I am not here to antagonize or pat myself on the back.

The downtown stadium is a home run!

(04-10-2015 11:25 AM)mistabinks Wrote:  The City was supposed to run at a deficit for 30 to 40 years according to the naysayers. The higher than expected HOT monies has reduced that to 10 years. Then the City will get a better interest rate and that will go down even further.

It's a loan. You will run at a deficit in the beginning years. The HOT monies was more than expected. That shorten and lessen the money spent overall.

Is this where I write I told you so? Nah, not my style. I am not here to antagonize or pat myself on the back.

The downtown stadium is a home run!

I never said that the city would run a deficit for 30 or 40 years so that is neither here nor there.

The HOT tax may have been more than expected but you didn't address whether it was actually 4 million like KFOX claims or 2.4 like KVIA claims. So which one is it.

The stadium is popular. I've never doubted that.

My issue was always with the need to topple City Hall to do it.

(04-10-2015 11:55 AM)Fitbud Wrote:  I never said that the city would run a deficit for 30 or 40 years so that is neither here nor there.

Believe it or not, this message board does not revolve reply to your incorrect comments, exclusively. Naysayers did say it would run a deficit for 30 to 40 years and cost 190 million in the end. I'll quote you if I representing that you said something.

(04-10-2015 11:51 AM)Fitbud Wrote:  The HOT tax may have been more than expected but you didn't address whether it was actually 4 million like KFOX claims or 2.4 like KVIA claims. So which one is it.

It is not on me to address it. I simply provide the information. It's on others to take it as they will.



Seriously though, KVIA is the worse when it comes to local media and trying to stir the pot. In April of 2014, it had been announced that 2 million had been generated in HOT monies. It is safe to assume that 4 million has been collected since the City started collecting HOT monies. 2.4 million is probably the 2014 YTD numbers.

(04-10-2015 11:51 AM)Fitbud Wrote:  The stadium is popular. I've never doubted that.

If you say so.

(04-10-2015 11:51 AM)Fitbud Wrote:  My issue was always with the need to topple City Hall to do it.

If you say so.

Thought you might like reading this.

Roosters coming home
April 13, 2015
It should not surprise us that the numbers recently released by the city show that their previous revenue projections relating to the ballpark were wrong.

Hotel occupancy taxes, sales taxes, and parking revenue were all over estimated. Even the “crazies” might see how one number was missed, but all three?

One number came in better than expected–ticket sales. More people attended games than they projected. That is good.

Why then were parking revenues below expectations? Did someone game that revenue source or was the original number miscomputed? A city official promised to look into that.

The net effect is that the city had to take almost one million dollars out of the general fund to pay interest on the bonds that we were told would be self sustaining.

The general fund is made up of property and sales taxes as well as fees and fines. Last year city council had to levy a multi-million dollar fee against water bills to cover a shortfall in the city budget.

Texas state law does not allow the city to pay for the ballpark with property taxes because of the way the election was held. Yet the city is using general fund money to do it.

Some will try to argue that the specific part of the general fund they are using does not come from property taxes. That is like trying to argue that your spouse’s paycheck does not contribute to your mortgage payment.

The facts are in. There should be consequences for the people that did this to us. If laws have not been violated then maybe at the least we should publicly shun the former city employees that did this to us.

What will the city council do about this?

We deserve better

http://elpasospeak.com/

That is a pretty good editorial. I do question the numbers and timing of all of this. Not on the reporting but what the City is saying. The City is about to go to referendum with the El Paso Fire Department. I have a hunch that they released this to scare the voters. Interesting timing to say the least. How else does 4 million become 2.4 million in a matter of months. Especially when 2 million had been raised in April of 2014.

(04-13-2015 12:25 PM)mistabinks Wrote:  That is a pretty good editorial. I do question the numbers and timing of all of this. Not on the reporting but what the City is saying. The City is about to go to referendum with the El Paso Fire Department. I have a hunch that they released this to scare the voters. Interesting timing to say the least. How else does 4 million become 2.4 million in a matter of months. Especially when 2 million had been raised in April of 2014.

You just made me go cross eyed trying to understand the politics of it all.

I hate how the city manipulates El Pasoans. This is the reason why I was against the location of the stadium.

I will admit that this anger has caused me to down play much of the good surrounding us having a triple A team.

That said, I did attend a few games last year and plan to attend some this year. All El Pasoans should go see the Chihuahuas because their marketing strategy is beyond excellent and the stadium is truly a gem.

A lot of feeling got hurt though and that does take time to restore.

You might also like this

Bad math = lies, damned lies and statistics

If you had told me two months ago that we were going to find out that the ballpark projected revenues numbers were going to be wrong... I guess I would have had to agree with you.

You might remember that we found out the city couldn't estimate the construction cost of a popsicle house within a million bucks. I guess it's no surprise that they got the ballpark figures wrong (in both directions). If my memory serves me right, there's a "consultant" hired to lead the city through all these numbers - ballpark and bond issue. It was a no-bid - you're hired on the spot type of deal. And I guess somebody should've checked them out a little more than they did.

El Paso is already facing a dire budget outlook. Add (or subtract) these money problems from the general fund and things are looking really bad.

Whether you felt that you were personally right or wrong here, the real question is what the city is going to do about it. The person overseeing all the screwed up construction costs in the bond issue was promoted. I'm guessing who ever did these numbers is getting a bonus.

What you are going to have a hard time doing is convincing the many fans of the baseball team that they are a bunch of fools who need to apologize to you. For your sake, check your stubborn, stupid and angry antics at the door. If you want to lose the name "crazies," you can be a part of the solution. Beating your chest exclaiming "I TOLD YOU SO!!!!" during the call to the public does nothing for nobody. Suggesting cuts in services and staff is what you should be talking about (as staff goes, you might suggest a simple math test as a means test).

- See more at: http://refusethejuice.typepad.com/thinka...l#comments

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They lied
April 15, 2015
The chart we posted the other day in Try to get a home mortgage like this one has been on my mind and I finally figured out why.

Let’s go back to the ball park financing issue as it rolled out to the taxpayers.

We were told that the ball park was going to be built whether we wanted it or not. The election was not about whether to build the ball park but how it would be paid for.
We were told that if we voted yes in the election the hotel occupancy tax would pay for the costs of building the ball park.
We were told that state law forbid the use of property tax receipts to pay for the ball park because of the statute they chose to use to create the funding.
Yet the chart that the city came up with after the election shows that the city did not intend to pay any of the principal due on the debt for the first ten years of financing.

Why? There was not enough money projected to come in from the hotel occupancy taxes (HOT). They admitted right there and then that HOT money would not be adequate to pay for the ball park. In fact HOT money is not even sufficient to pay the interest on the debt. They are using general fund money to make up the shortfall. The general fund gets revenue from property taxes, sales taxes, and fines and fees.

They knew
If the chart showed the city paying both principal and interest starting in year one and HOT money proved to be insufficient then we might be convinced to believe that someone just missed a number. In this case however they planned to skip principal payments for the first ten years. Why? Because they knew HOT money would not be sufficient to pay for the ball park and lying to the bond buyers could land them in jail.

Lying to us was a choice they made because they did not expect repercussions.

We deserve better

Brutus

http://elpasospeak.com/

Don’t look
April 16, 2015
Doing research for some recent posts I went to the city website to read minutes of the Downtown Development Corporation (DDC) meetings.

The DDC is a legal maneuver that city council used to facilitate building our ball park. It is city council under a different name.

The DDC has published agendas for January 8, May 28, June 18, August 1, and October 15 of 2013 and March 17 of 2015.

Minutes are available for the first two meetings. Who said what during the meetings where this bond mess was created is information that is not available to us.

Members of council are now telling us that they did not know how bad the situation was. They say they were never told.

I suppose videos would be out of the question.

We deserve better.

Brutus