Budget Explorer · City of El Paso

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of El Paso, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Aug 31, 2023. City of El Paso's own FY2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 677K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$1.63B

$2,406 per resident

Total spending

$1.69B

$2,498 per resident

Spending per resident

$2,498

22nd percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$3.14B

$4,641 per resident · 61st percentile of 70

Own-source share

87%

77th percentile of 71

Capital share

38%

95th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$1.63B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$381M23%
General sales tax$198M12%
Selective sales taxes$120M7%
License & other taxes$16M1%
Federal aid$131M8%
State & local aid$52M3%
Charges & fees$385M24%
Interest, fines, other$126M8%
Utility revenue$222M14%

Own-source share of general revenue 87% · federal aid 9% · property tax is 53% of taxes

Where it goes

$1.69B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Utilities (water, power, gas)$393M23%
Public safety$317M19%
Environment & housing$271M16%
General government$265M16%
Transportation$201M12%
Interest on debt$121M7%
Culture & recreation$87M5%
Health & hospitals$35M2%
Public welfare$1.7M0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$111M	$283M	$393M
General (unallocable)	General government	$109M	$122M	$230M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$68M	$153M	$221M
Police protection	Public safety	$155M	$3.8M	$159M
Fire protection	Public safety	$146M	$3.4M	$149M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$67M	$10M	$77M
Transit	Transportation	$62M	$5.6M	$67M
Highways	Transportation	$51M	$14M	$65M
Air transportation	Transportation	$34M	$26M	$60M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$32M	$9.5M	$42M
Health	Health & hospitals	$35M	$573K	$35M
Central staff services	General government	$14M	$375K	$15M
Judicial & legal	General government	$13M	$51K	$13M
Libraries	Culture & recreation	$9.9M	$489K	$10M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+15% over 2 yrs

$1.41B → $1.63B

Spending

+32% over 2 yrs

$1.28B → $1.69B

Debt outstanding

+32% over 2 yrs

$2.39B → $3.14B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of El Paso	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$2,498	$3,741	22nd	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$2,406	$3,548	15th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$1,054	$1,328	29th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$4,641	$3,865	61st	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	87%	81%	77th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	9%	7%	73rd	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	38%	18%	95th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	7%	4%	85th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	1.93×	1.05×	92nd	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 482141176118 (EL Paso City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · FY2026

City of El Paso's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 32 departments.

$1.38B total

POLICE$225M16%
FIRE$166M12%
NON-DEPARTMENTAL$161M12%
ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES$130M9%
STREETS AND MAINTENANCE$106M8%
SUN METRO$103M7%
HUMAN RESOURCES$83M6%
AVIATION$74M5%
PARKS AND RECREATION$59M4%
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT$42M3%
INTERNATIONAL BRIDGES$31M2%
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY$29M2%
All other (20)$173M13%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 127-127) — all funds.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
El Paso adopted an FY2027 budget in August 2026 but had published no adopted document for it when this was captured — only the city manager's preliminary book, which council amended before adoption.
El Paso's fiscal year runs September to August, so this year ended shortly before capture; it remains the city's most recent published adopted budget.
Source: FY2026 Budget Book (All Funds Expenditures Summary by Department) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-08. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of El Paso's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of El Paso capacity assessment.