lilly_niland_toobusyIt has now become common practice at the city to blame every problem on everyone else but city officials. City council washes its hands of the city’s budget woes blaming the Central Appraisal District for the budget issues the city faces. Last month, the city council demanded that the city audit the Central Appraisal District all in masked indignation of looking out for the taxpayers of the community.

When Western Refinery successfully sued the Central Appraisal District forcing the city’s taxing entities to refund about $12 million to Western Refinery the city conveniently used the CAD as the scapegoat for the resulting budget shortfalls.

What the city and the complicit news media ignore is that the CAD only sets the value of the taxable property in El Paso. It does not set the tax rate. The city also has two city council representatives that also conveniently avoid the discussions about their roles in the both evaluating property and setting the tax rates that hamper the economic growth of El Paso.

The CAD is just the convenient scapegoat for the taxpayers’ anger.

Therefore, I wasn’t surprised to read in the El Paso Inc., in an article by David Crowder about how the city’s two representatives; Ann Morgan Lilly and Cortney Niland were the only two CAD board members not present last week to set the CAD’s $12.7 million.

Lilly and Niland are the first to decry the incompetence of the CAD yet, as the two city representatives on that board, they miss probably the most important meeting of the organization.

Nevertheless, they will be the first to pontificate that the CAD is out of control and that it needs to be reconstituted while they leave the erroneous notion that the CAD is responsible for the outrageous taxes being paid by the taxpayers. Lost through the fog will be the fact that they both missed the most important meeting of their board.

And, the circle of higher taxes driven by the incompetent will continue.

Martin Paredes

Martín Paredes is a Mexican immigrant who built his business on the U.S.-Mexican border. As an immigrant, Martín brings the perspective of someone who sees México as a native through the experience...

2 replies on “The El Paso CAD, Where Was the City?”

  2. What a way to encourage business and families to relocate to El Paso ! We can no longer criticize the Mexican government, we have our own version here.

    We definitely have reinforced the idea that El Paso is nothing more than dusty, sleepy, ridden with flies, cantinas serving a plate of fri holes and tequila. Oh yeah, forgot the crooked cattle baron and the Mexican with a beard, missing teeth, unwashed, ” haha,urg,urg, shoot the gringo” ! Word of advice to the cartel, do not move to El Paso, the taxes will destroy you and the corruption will make you blush.

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