Isn it true that Segundo Barrio residents and downtown businesses don pay their fair share of taxes?
City Council politicians and the supporters of the Paso Del Norte Group plan have repeatedly claimed that the Downtown and Segundo Barrio businesses and residences only pay $414,000 in taxes. They want the El Paso public to believe that this is the total amount taxes generated by the area although they know the real amount they pay is much higher. The true figure that includes the total taxes for this business-residential area is more than 1.8 million dollars per year. When the pro-plan politicians compare the downtown-Segundo Barrio taxes to other parts outside the redevelopment zone, they only use the City tax figure (25% of all taxes) for downtown-Segundo Barrio. Yet they use the tax figures that include taxes paid to all entities (100% of all taxes) to areas outside the redevelopment zone. In other words, they have been comparing a quarter of an apple to a whole orange. These politicians have been engaging in an outrageous and fradulent campaign of deception. In fact, the commercia
