Platforms / Roadway Protection
Platform 04 · Streets & mobility
Built on credit: El Paso bonds its roads, and you pay the interest on your property tax bill.
A roadway impact fee charges the developer instead. No new fee on your bill, no monthly charge, no tax increase — just a smaller credit card.
Leer en español$65M
the gap, every year, between what El Paso budgets for street maintenance and what holding pavement condition steady actually costs — on a street network valued at roughly $3.6 billion.
In short
El Paso funds street capital with debt — that is the City's own stated practice: certificates of obligation that need no voter approval, plus bonds that do, including $237 million for streets in the 2022 bond. Both are repaid through the property tax rate, which means existing taxpayers carry the cost of roadway capacity built for new subdivisions on the edges. And roads are worse off than water in one respect: there is no outside money coming — state gas tax does not flow to the city at all, and county registration fees are locked to regional mobility projects. The scale is not in dispute: about $10 million a year budgeted against roughly $75 million needed to hold pavement condition, more than 52 miles already past what resurfacing can fix, half the network rated fair to very poor, one in five residents satisfied. The City's own CFO has said relying on property taxes is not sustainable and neither is issuing debt. This plan supplies the third option: a roadway impact fee under Chapter 395, charged once to developers at building permit in designated growth areas. Capital paid in cash is capital not borrowed; debt not issued is debt service never owed; and debt service not owed is tax rate not levied.
The numbers
Figure 1
The street maintenance gap — what holding condition costs, against what is budgeted
About $10 million a year budgeted against roughly $75 million needed. More than 52 miles of streets are already past the point resurfacing can fix.
Figure 2
How residents rate their own streets
- Not satisfied≈4 of 5
- Satisfied≈1 of 5
About one in five residents is satisfied with street condition, on a network of more than 2,400 centerline miles about half rated fair to very poor.
"New growth should pay its way on our roads, the same way we already require it to on water — not existing residents footing the bill for other people's new subdivisions."
Read the whole plan
The full paper runs 9 pages: the problem in detail, what the City can lawfully do about it, what would actually happen, and the charts behind every number on this page.
↓Download the full planPDF · 9 pagesElection Day is November 3, 2026
Make a plan to vote
Registration closes October 5. Early voting runs October 19–30. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Check your registration and find your polling place at VoteTexas.gov or the El Paso County Elections Department.
Check your registration →El Paso County Elections
Get the plans in your inbox
One email when a new plan, a correction, or a vote worth knowing about goes up. Nothing else.
