El Paso County Taxes Are Going Up Next Year – Here’s How Much More You’ll Be Paying

It’s the time of the year when all the area’s taxing entities let us know what you can expect in next year’s property tax bill.

El Paso City Council raised taxes this year about $45 dollars on the average home of $127,000. Yesterday, El Paso County Commissioners raised taxes $17 on an average county home of $123,000. If voters vote yes in the almost one billion dollar bond election in the El Paso Independent School District, they could see an increase of $259 per year on the average $138,000 home in the district.

That’s about $321 that you’ll be paying more in property taxes next year.

The increases in taxes are pretty stunning when you look at the jump they’ve taken in just a few years. Since 2006, the City tax rate has gone up by almost 47 percent, the County has increased its rate by 50 percent, UMC has gone up 81 percent and EPCC has seen an increase of more than 43 percent.

School districts in the area have done a little better. EPISD’s tax rate went down 1.3 percent, Socorro ISD went up 3.5 percent, and Ysleta ISD jumped more than 14 percent.

The numbers represented are for an average home in each taxing entity. If your home is worth more, you’ll be paying more.

Taxpayers have a hard time swallowing the increases because of stories coming out of the County of 43 paid vacation and sick days, schools that were built in YISD but are now going to be torn down to be rebuilt again with the latest massive bond, and the request for an almost billion dollars more in taxpayer money for EPISD when they are barely past a huge cheating scandal.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a money tree in my backyard. I think it’s time that elected officials realize that and make a concerted effort to stop reaching into taxpayer pockets like we just won the lotto.