EL PASO, Texas -- Two projects left over from the 2006 Floods in the Saipan Neighborhood and Dallas Street, the design and construction of nearly a half-dozen bus terminals, and 40 new buses are just part of $73 million worth of spending City Council passed Tuesday.

"It obviously is going to raise taxes, you heard it will raise it up to two pennies next year for every $100 evaluation, so this in itself will raise taxes for next year," said District 6 Rep. Eddie Holguin.

Holguin voted no for all of the projects. He said in this economy, it's a bad idea.

"They're cutting jobs, people are losing jobs, you continue to read that we are shrinking in jobs, there's no money out there, but yet this council today managed to spend over $75 million, that is just incredible to me," Holguin told KFOX.

But others on the council said this opens the city to millions in federal money, and that now is the time to spend and build.

"In economic downturns in the past in the United States, the government steps in with public infrastructure projects, and it's a boon to our economy, and it helps us get out of recessions or in the past, a depression," said District 8 Rep. Beto O'Rourke.

El Pasoans KFOX spoke to on Tuesday agree.

"All metropolitan areas are always booming with business, and business brings in workers, and workers bring in revenue, and El Paso is in desperate need of renovation and getting up to the level of other cities," said Leslee Herrera, from West El Paso.

Even though taxes, and the economy, are on their minds.

"I worry about it all the time, I see customers and friends and family struggling, and definitely that's a serious consideration, but without a doubt we need to go forward," said Debbi Hester from West El Paso.

The projects will be paid for by certificates of obligation, which is essentially debt. Some on the council wanted the projects to go to the public in a special election, but that would have had to wait until May and could have put the city in jeopardy of losing some of the federal funding.