5,000 TIRZ Acres

FROM EL PASO’S CFO “It’s all about the tax base,” Cortinas said. “When you compare the city of El Paso’s tax base to any other large Texas city, we really are far behind.”

MAKE IT FAIR To say we need to increase everyone else’s tax base while keeping this particular commercial development’s evaluation artificially low: is extremely unfair Every district in the whole City will be on the hook for the development in this one zone.

Taxes to general fund frozen at $94000/year That means the “base tax value” number will be low.

TIRZ BASELINE VALUE Current land value: $11,744,387 Current tax rate .8/100 dollars of evaluation $94 Thousand /yr. to the General Fund Only $3.4 Million over 36 yrs. life of the TIRZ to the General Fund

THE MATH 9000 housing units x $141,000 average home price = lost opportunity cost of $23 Billion ($22,769,275,000.00) Over 36 years Only $3.4 Million to the General Fund $182 Million to the Private Sector

THE LARGEST TRANSFER OF PUBLIC FUNDS TO A PRIVATE ENTITY City’s desire to have the land developed facilitated through a direct sale agreement between the City and the private entity.

Normal Developer Costs Streets and street improvements within a development Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater Parks or park fees Impact fees

$49 Million for Open Space Facilities is Ridiculous Total maintenance costs for 200 acres in the Palisades for 8 years = $124.00 That’s right. That’s not even 8 cents /acre.

Other Costs Purpose of TIRZ is to jumpstart development How much $$$ will the TIRZ need to incur in order to jumpstart this Project? Will the TIRZ sell bonds? Other encumbrances?

This TIRZ = Corporate Welfare Subsidizes Development to the Max Insignificant income to the City: $94,000 /yr. is less than a 10th of a percent of the $800 million annual City budget Windfall subsidies for a private entity Economic BLACKHOLE…requires 36 years of capital contributions before there is even any net benefit.

KEEP IT TRANSPARENT Who are the principles? Will you share developer agreements And the 380s? Marketing studies Were there any offers to buy this …in whole or in part?

The argument could be made that you need TIRZ #12 to cover excess costs in the 1000 acre Smart Code development that is currently public land, but then how do you justify TIRZ #10 for 4000 acres of private property?

City’s Record of Public Improvements QOL Bonds – Just sold an additional $ 90 M COs, and they are way behind Ball Park – Subsized $3 M / year Children’s Hospital – Looses money San Jacinto Plaza West Side Pool – Original budget was $10 M, went to $15 M Trailheads – Costing $200 thousand /site

Why the Rush? Consider All the Options Let the people vote in November: No False Choices Private Improvement District (PID), an extra tax on just the development that stays directly in the development so that actual beneficiaries bear the cost Real public/private partnership and share the profits Redesign development to a more marketable product Save everyone trauma, drama, capital expense, even more Westside traffic congestion, and allow OSAB to purchase the parcel and keep it as open space