Voters overwhelming supported multimillion-dollar bond proposals for the city of El Paso and the Ysleta Independent School District.

Unofficial final election results show 59% of voters were in favor of the city of El Paso’s $413 million Public Safety Bond.

And 58% of voters supported the Ysleta Independent School District’s $425 million bond.

Official final election results were not yet available as of Wednesday afternoon.

The two bond proposals passed with very low voter turnout.

Of the 383,523 registered voters in the city of El Paso, only 8% voted in the public safety bond election.

Nine percent of the 112,255 registered voters in the Ysleta school district voted in the school bond election.

$413 million Public Safety Bond

The Public Safety Bond will fund the construction of new buildings for the El Paso police and fire departments and the construction of a joint Public Safety Training Academy, in addition to renovations of existing facilities. Bond money also will be used to replace older police and fire vehicles.

Sgt. Michael Short, president of the El Paso Municipal Police Officers Association, said the union is "ecstatic" about Tuesday's results and said they demonstrate that "the citizens of El Paso are looking toward the future of law enforcement in their community."

"The bond will put us ahead for the next 30 years in terms of facilities, training and equipment," Short said.

The city projects that as a result of the bond, taxes will increase 12% each year for a six year period. For a homeowner whose home is valued at $133,500, the average taxable value of a single-family home in the city, the bond will raise property taxes by approximately $96 by the end of the six-year period.

It will be up to the City Council to decide when to issue the debt. The city has given no indication of when construction and renovations will begin or how long it will take to spend the bond money.

$425 million YISD bond

The bond will fund the construction of new schools to house consolidated campuses, as well as extensive campus renovations. It also will be used on campus safety and security enhancements and the conversion to refrigerated air systems at various campuses.

"I think our El Paso community is very thoughtful and considerate when it comes to children," YISD Superintendent Xavier De La Torre said Tuesday night, adding: "If there's an area where they're willing to take a risk and make the investment, I think it's on our young people.

"I think  we all recognize and embrace the fact that they're our future, and our quality of life in this community ... will be predicated on how well we educate students that will eventually become leaders in this community and will contribute to society as we know it here."

YISD board President Cruz Ochoa called the bond's passage a "win-win for our kids."

The superintendent told supporters Tuesday night that like the bond passed in 2015, the YISD would complete the 2019 bond projects on time, on or under budget and would rely on local labor for the construction and renovation projects.

The bond is projected to increase YISD's property tax rate by about 21 cents, from $1.3534 to $1.5683 per $100 in assessed value. A homeowner whose home is valued at $112,200 — the average value of a single-family home in the district — would pay approximately $1,015 next year in property taxes, a $139 increase from this year's tax bill.

PACs invest in passing city, YISD bond

Despite the low voter turnout this election, the political action committees supporting the bond propositions spent a decent amount of money in a short time trying to garner support. 

The El Paso Municipal Police Officers’ Association PAC spent $20,709 from Sept. 27 to Oct. 26, according to the campaign finance report it filed Oct. 28 with the Texas Ethics Commission. It did not raise any funds during this period.

Of that, the PAC paid $20,000 to Jeremy Jordan for “expenditures made in support of measure in city bond election.” The report does not list what these expenditures consisted of, but the PAC sent out mailers advocating for the Public Safety Bond.

Jordan, an executive director of public safety and health at the YMCA of El Paso, is dating District 3 city Rep. Cassandra Hernandez, who led the special election for her seat and will face a runoff Dec. 14 against Will Veliz.

The PAC's remaining $709 went to Croucher Hackett Calleros & Co. PC for “report filing and supporting services” for the ballot measure, according to the report.

The Ysleta One PAC raised $33,050 from Oct. 8 through Oct. 26, according to its Oct. 28 campaign finance report, mostly from local architecture and construction firms. The El Paso Association of Contractors donated $20,000.

The PAC spent $30,976 during this period, of which $26,456 went to Jaime Abeytia — $19,456 of that was payments for “paid walkers” from Oct. 2 to Oct. 11 and from Oct. 14 to Oct. 23, and $7,000 for “field director consulting services,” according to the report. The PAC spent the remaining $4,520 on printing and event costs.

Abeytia, a local political blogger who works as a field organizer and is a Democratic Party precinct chair, is the fiancé of YISD trustee Kathryn Lucero, he said.

Abeytia has been critical on his blog of Jordan's work with the police officers' association PAC and alleges "there was definitely some level of coordination" between Hernandez and Jordan as flyers for the Public Safety Bond and Hernandez's re-election campaign were left on the same doors at the same time. He said his situation is different because he does not live with Lucero and also pointed out that Lucero, who was in the minority, voted against placing the school bond on the ballot at YISD's Aug. 19 meeting.

Jordan, however, told the El Paso Times he does not live with Hernandez. He said volunteers who supported both the Public Safety Bond and the District 3 representative alternated their time for the two election efforts.

"I would say it's a smart use of campaign dollars and human resources," Jordan said.

Voting results

City of El Paso Proposition "A" — Public Safety

Precincts reporting 100%

For 18,687, 59%

Against 12,784, 41%

Ysleta Independent School District Bond Proposition

Precincts reporting 100%

Ysleta Independent School District Bond Proposition

For 6,233, 58%

Against 4,532, 42%