This week you have to pay your annual property taxes by Thursday or pay a steep penalty. As you write your checks and go and wait in long lines to pay them on time remember that El Paso has the third highest property taxes in the entire state of Texas. Then ask yourself as you register the thousands paid into your check registry and see your bank account drained, what services you have received in return for this money. Do you have a well trained police force? Do you have a DA who follows the law? Do you have adequate trash pickup? Is the city clean or dirty? Are your parks maintained? Are the schools educating your children properly? Is there proper drainage for rain?
The answer to these questions for me and many El Pasoans is a resounding NO. Why?
The answer is that local politicians have been STEALING!
We now know that the Federal government through the FBI and the US Attorney’s office has had to investigate and is now prosecuting high level theft by local elected officials. These officials now admit they were selling their votes to pass bonds (which make our property taxes go higher) to engorge their friends’ pockets off of our backs. What did we get out of it? Nothing but higher taxes and a city that looks and runs terribly.
My opponent has watched this corruption that we pay for flourish for 16 years and he has done nothing. Absolutely nothing. Are he and other responsible local officials going to continue to act like they didn’t put us in the hole a whopping $1.8 billion dollars as a community in bond and certificates of obligation debt and money for all their programs like Esparza’s DIMS. DIMS does nothing but take away your constitutional rights. Our children will be paying this bill. Will they be able to buy homes to shelter their families when they grow up?
The late Sheriff Samaniego tried to get my opponent to investigate corruption cases but it just didn’t happen. In the end, Sheriff Samaniego and others went to the FBI and passed the information on to them.
Esparza has no excuse or reason as to why he never convened a grand jury to investigate and why he never prosecuted the thieves. He will say, now that he is under my gun, that he “is cooperating with the FBI investigation.” But what does that mean? It means he did nothing and the Feds had to take over. If Esparza is cooperating with the feds, then he must have information to share. If so, why didn’t he use this information to lead his own prosecutions? Ask Esparza how much money was stolen? Ask him who stole it?
While Esparza is stumbling around those questions proving he is either incompetent or corrupt himself, entire families are being driven from their homes because they can’t pay their ever rising taxes. People are having to choose between educating their children and paying their property taxes, between moving from their homes and paying their property taxes, between eating and paying their property taxes, between paying for medicine and paying their property taxes, etc. This is what we have come to.
The El Paso Times wrote an article today through the pen of Ramon Bracamontes which would have you believe that no one is talking about the corruption and the high property taxes except for me. The entire population is SCREAMING about their taxes and the corruption. Two years ago El Pasoans filed thousands of protests and untold numbers of lawsuits regarding their taxes. But they CAN’T HEAR US.– It is interesting to note that Mr. Bracamontes never once mentioned in his article that it is my opponent’s job to prosecute theft and abuse of power and how he failed to do his job and that is why the Feds are involved. But then Ramon Bracamontes’ son Aaron Bracamontes was employed by my opponent. Exposing Esparza’s failure to prosecute corruption might bode poorly for future employment for Bracamontes’ son and other members of his family. So who cares about you and your family. Not Ramon Bracamontes and Dioicio Flores at the Times. Who cares about your need to know this information when casting your vote in hopes of better government and NOT better employment for Aaron Bracamontes and family?
Early in the race, Bracamontes called me for an interview. When I called him on the fact that his son Aaron worked for my opponent, he quickly backed out of his request for an interview and he said that someone else would be covering the race. I had caught him red handed. Now Bracamotes is back on the job, writing about my race and down playing Esparza’s do nothing position regarding local corruption. Ramon Bracamontes wrote his story today as though he is neutral. Why didn’t Bracamontes tell you in the article, “By the way readers, Caballero’s opponent gave my son a job?” Reader beware. These are the kinds of reporters Dionicio Flores has at his newspaper. This is the kind of “ethics” they employ at that newspaper.
It brings me nothing but deep sorrow that we have such a corrupt government and a newspaper that so abuses the public trust.
I have long fought against this and other forms of corruption. If elected to be your DA I will aggressively investigate corruption and prosecute it. On top of investigating it myself, citizens will be able to report wrong doing directly to my office. I also pledge not to have the whistleblowers put in jail as my opponent has done in the past. The tax dollars you will pay to run the DA’s office under me will be used to hire lawyers and accountants with the knowledge, expertise and talent to FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL.
Be sure and watch the KVIA debate tonight on my race. It starts at 6:30! Remember to vote for Theresa Caballero on March 4.