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El Paso Tax Watch

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Deal cards

The stories behind the numbers. Each card has the timeline, the verified figures, the source documents, and the questions nobody has answered yet. Cards are updated as news breaks.

Economic development · Updated Oct 2026

Meta's data center: $365M in foregone city revenue

Meta, operating locally as "Wurldwide LLC," is building a hyperscale AI data-center campus on about 1,000 acres in far northeast El Paso.

Timeline

  • Apr 2024: land sale closed, about $8.5M.
  • Apr 2025: construction began.
  • Oct 2025: project announced.
  • ~2028: operating target.

The incentives

  • City Chapter 312 abatement: 10 years at 80%.
  • City Chapter 380 agreement: 15 years at 80% of property tax revenue.
  • Both require at least $800M in investment and at least 50 jobs.
  • The county granted an abatement as well.
  • Ysleta ISD, the school district covering the site, said no to an abatement.

The money

  • The city projects $365M in foregone revenue over 25 years.
  • Meta would still pay about $417M after abatements, making it El Paso's largest city property taxpayer. For scale, the current top two are El Paso Electric at about $5M (2025) and the Marathon refinery at about $4.34M.
  • Power: El Paso Electric's proposed ~366MW McCloud gas plant; Meta pays for the first five years.
  • Water: estimated up to 2.5M gallons per day at full buildout.

Sources: El Paso Times, Jul 27 and Aug 14, 2026, Dec 4, 2023; City Economic Development Review, Legistar, Apr 13, 2026.

Open questionsGov. Abbott's Aug 2026 data-center directive put the deal under political heat. Meta says the 380 agreement will not change. We are watching whether the terms hold, and what the water and power costs look like as buildout proceeds.

Read the deep dive: Meta's $365M abatement, explained

Capital project · Updated Oct 2026

Deck Plaza: the $207M park over I-10

A 6.5-acre cap park over I-10 downtown. In the design phase now, with construction expected in 2027.

The money

  • Price tag: $207M in 2027 dollars, plus $32M in TxDOT retaining walls. One critic's estimate puts the true cost near $240M.
  • Committed so far: roughly $74-84M, including a $10M TxDOT advance-design deal, $25M from the MPO, $3.15M in federal community project funding, and $1M from the county.
  • Another $35M in philanthropy is described as "committed but not yet secured."
  • Grant applications totaled $80.44M. About $998K has been awarded. Four applications totaling $60M were rejected.
  • No city general-fund dollars are committed. City Council support is non-binding.

Sources: downtowndeckplaza.org; El Paso Times op-ed, May 8, 2026; 2026 candidate questionnaires.

Open questionsWho closes a funding gap of over $100M? Deck Plaza is a top issue in the 2026 council races, which means the answer may depend on who wins. We track every new commitment here.

Read the deep dive: Deck Plaza's funding gap

County budget · Updated Oct 2026

Sheriff $5.9M over: overtime, food costs, contingency

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office, under Sheriff Oscar Ugarte, closed FY2026 (Oct 1, 2025 through Sep 30, 2026) about $5.9M over its revised budget of roughly $142M.

What happened

  • Jail-staffing overtime drove the deficit. The department says it needs about 100 more detention officers.
  • Rising inmate food costs added to the gap.
  • The budget had already been bumped about $8M mid-year, while other departments were told to cut.
  • The shortfall was covered from contingency funds.

What changed

  • The FY2027 budget adds $15.4M to the Sheriff's Office.
  • Commissioners must now pre-approve overtime for special operations.

Reported by County Budget Director Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria to Commissioners Court. Sources: El Paso Times, Aug 11, Sep 25, and Oct 2, 2026; KTSM.

Open questionsThe final audited deficit and whether a formal budget amendment passed are not yet confirmed. The deeper question: does $15.4M more fix the staffing math, or does the overtime cycle repeat?

Read the deep dive: the Sheriff's $5.9M overrun

Unconfirmed · Updated Oct 2026

Marathon: the deal we cannot find

"The Marathon deal" comes up in every conversation about El Paso incentives. Here is what we can and cannot verify.

What we found

  • No new incentive deal found for 2024 through 2026. Six targeted searches turned up no new Chapter 312 or 313 abatement, or any other incentive, for Marathon Petroleum's 500-acre East-Central refinery (133,000 barrels per day).
  • The refinery paid about $4.34M in city property tax in 2025, the city's second-largest taxpayer.

What is actually happening with Marathon in 2026

  • The story is regulatory, not incentives. State regulators granted a contested-case hearing on the refinery's air-permit renewal, the first in its 97-year history. Marathon is fighting it.
  • An Aug 4, 2026 equipment breakdown released 31,100 pounds of 33 pollutants, about three times the initial report. City Council and Rep. Veronica Escobar demanded EPA and state action.

Sources: El Paso Times, Jun 3, Jul 17, Jul 27, and Aug 20, 2026.

Open questionsIf "the Marathon deal" refers to an older agreement, it will take a public-records request to surface the terms. That request is on our list. Until then, this card stays honest: unconfirmed.