Scott Brocato:
Bob, let's start with this story about El Paso's last living Holocaust survivor passing away at 98.
Bob Moore:
Yes, it's a gentleman named Tibor Schaechner. He moved to El Paso with his wife in 1960. They were both Hungarian survivors of the Holocaust. The Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944 and began rounding up Jews after that, and Tibor's father was taken by the Gestapo. They never really knew what happened to him, but he was, you know, obviously murdered. Tibor's sister was killed as the Russians were trying to retake Hungary in a bombing attack. His wife, who was from a separate area of Hungary, she lost her parents in the Holocaust. Her brothers were twins who were subject to experiments at Auschwitz by Dr. Joseph Mengele. And so they told their stories over the years. Unfortunately, his wife had passed away in 1998.
But Tibor lived a long life. He was 98 years old. And I had the chance to talk to his three daughters earlier this week after he passed. And they told some really interesting stories. They said that their parents didn't talk about the Holocaust when they were younger, and they kind of understood why. But as the children became adults, the parents opened up to them a lot more. And both parents became very active in talking about the Holocaust and trying to make sure people knew what happened and to fulfill this promise of “never again.” And I think it's really important to understand that the three daughters now believe that's part of their mission in life, too, is to continue to share their parents' stories so that people will know.
So it's a big loss. At one point, El Paso probably had dozens of Holocaust survivors who had settled here after World War II. I got to know some of them over the years, but it's really sad to think that they're all gone now. Fortunately, El Paso does have a Holocaust Museum to help keep these stories alive. So it's an important time to reflect, I think, with Tibor's passing.
Scott Brocato:
Let's move on to the next story about the complicated reality of El Paso property taxes.
Bob Moore:
Property taxes are everybody's favorite subject in El Paso, and I think it's the one thing that draws us all together. Nobody likes paying property taxes, but that's how Texas has decided to fund local government. The state devolves most governance down to the local level, and the primary way of funding things like public safety, roads, parks, libraries, museums, schools is going to be through property taxes. And because El Paso is isolated, we often don't have a lot to compare to. And so you see a lot of things from politicians and social media that we have the highest property taxes in Texas, and that's not particularly accurate, although it's based on one element that people latch onto.
So we do have the highest property tax rates in Texas, but because our property values are so much lower than the rest of Texas, especially other urban areas, the property tax bills we wind up paying in El Paso are on average much, much less than what are paid in other Texas cities. That's no consolation to people when they start getting their bills over the next couple of weeks. That's the reason we did the story now is the property tax bills are going to be hitting mailboxes pretty soon, and people are going to be angry. Some may be surprised at what happened to their bills. Overall, typical property owner and homeowner in El Paso is probably going to pay a little bit more in property taxes this year than last year, and that won't make people happy. But it's good to put in context where we are.
And by the way, one challenges that this reality creates here, where we have lower priced homes than everywhere else and we don't have any commercial property tax base, is that even high tax rates don't yield a lot of dollars for local governments. And so we wind up with a very low level of services in El Paso. I sometimes tell people that the city government is really a public safety agency. that occasionally funds libraries, museums, and parks. And that's not far from the truth. Two-thirds of what we spend on city and county government really goes to public safety efforts. That's kind of the mandatory stuff that you have to do to have a safe community. And there's just not enough left after that for quality of life issues or cultural issues or things like that.
So I'm sure we're going to continue talking about property taxes for the rest of my life because it's something that just frustrates everybody.
Scott Brocato:
And finally, Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton made a campaign stop in El Paso recently touting his experience and asking for prayers.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, so Paxton is a controversial attorney general in Texas. He won the Republican Senate nomination earlier this year against longtime incumbent John Cornyn, very close to President Trump, although Trump kind of smacked him around a little bit when Trump came to Texas in September. And so Paxton is in an unusually tight race with the Democrat James Tallarico for Texas's Senate seat. No Democrat has been elected to the Texas since 1988, and Talarico is hoping to break that. And the polls just generally show him at least tied, if not ahead.
And so I think the fact that Paxton came out to El Paso speaks volumes. Republican candidates generally don't come out to El Paso because they know they're not going to do well here. And Paxton is not going to carry El Paso. I think even he realizes that, but it's really important for him to get as many voters out as he can. And so he's trying to generate enthusiasm among the Republican base all across Texas. And so he came out and met with about 200 supporters on Wednesday, and that kind of sets the stage. I expect Tallarico to come out at least once more before the election on November 3rd. So El Paso will get a little bit more statewide political attention than it had previously.
Scott Brocato:
All right. And where can folks read about those stories and more?
Bob Moore:
Stay up to date on all the most important news about our region at elpasomatters.org.