Fiscally Responsible Voter Trend Threatens 'Good Ol’ Boys' Control Of City Hall; Times Responds By Attacking County Judge Cobos.
It is no secret El Paso Times writers favor the tax and spend majority at city hall. The buzz last week was all about the newest member Rep. Jose Alexandro Lozano. He had been complaining of late that he was tired of “always losing.” He has evidently decided to join ‘em.
Up until now, Rep. Lozano had a fairly solid fiscally conservative record but it was that record that was keeping him out of the “secret meetings” he so wanted to be a part of. On one occasion, he said happened upon a meeting of the Paso Del Norte group leaders and the PSB board at Chase Bank where they were discussing PSB land assets, downtown buildings and districts. He felt very left out.
Well, no more, he has reconsidered, recently sharing the view he believes Bill Sanders’ forward thinking is great for the city and has decided to pull away from previous alliances. He has reversed himself on the major issues: financing wealthy neighborhoods with taxpayer dollars, tolling roads, eminent domain and spending without voter approval. These are all great things now according to Rep. Lozano. He believes he is doing “what is best for El Paso.”
Oddly, he’s been working overtime trying to convince, Rep. Eddie Holguin Jr. to abandon downtown owners, taxpayers and district #6 constituents and join the progressives, now self-ascribed as, “forward thinkers,” for the “good of the city.” Lozano is often lauded by his new found allies Byrd, Ortega and O’Rourke. The man can do no wrong.
But, there is a fly in the ointment. Eddie Holguin Jr. is a principled and staunch fiscally responsible steward of taxpayer dollars. This has been a source of great distress to Rep. Lozano who, it seems, promised he could bring him along.
But all is not well in paradise. There are loose ends. The County it seems has been captured by fiscally responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars who are seeking to streamline government. The new officials, Anthony Cobos and Luis Sarinana won decisive victories supported by voters who are weary of the tax and spend policies at city hall. So the Times has felt the need to do what it can to bring down the new County Judge and Commissioners’ Court and mislead voters. Failure to accomplish this may mean fiscally responsible candidates may wrest control of city hall from the current tax and spend, eminent domain group.
The new County Judge, Anthony Cobos, along with Commissioners Sarinana, Teran and Haggerty have presided over two meetings and already the Times has begun to attack. The reason for these attacks it seems is the upcoming May election and the urgent need to save the tax and spend crowd majority led by the privileged few at city hall. Otherwise, there may be a dismantling of the downtown plan and a scaling back of sales of taxpayer land assets at the PSB.
Currently announced candidates have different views when it comes to taxation. There will surely be more people signing up over the next few weeks:
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This perspective first appeared in Border Observer, Jaime O. Perez, Editor