🛑Mesquite taxpayers need to see this.🛑
I built an interactive chart showing the City of Mesquite’s Certificates of Obligation debt from 2012–2026 — including the amount borrowed, the interest attached, and who was serving as Mayor and Council when the debt was approved.
The picture is disturbing.
Yes, the City legally posted notice of its intent to issue the CO. But there was no real public hearing to discuss the long-term financial impact of this overwhelming debt. No serious public discussion about what it could mean for the City’s financial ratings, future budgets, taxes, streets, public safety, or basic services.
And when citizens asked for that discussion, City Council avoided it.
Instead, this massive debt was bundled with other items on the consent agenda, kept out of meaningful discussion during the regular council meeting, and passed without one spoken word.
That is not transparency. That is not accountability.
Debt is not free money. Every dollar committed to debt service is a dollar future taxpayers cannot use for the needs of this city.
Mesquite cannot keep borrowing tens of millions of dollars and pretending there will be no consequences.
The bill always comes due — and taxpayers are the ones left holding it.