By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

With voters set to head to the polls beginning tomorrow, the final major push of campaigning is here. We are seeing all of the campaigns involved in this year’s election, from a federal level to a local level, make their cases for why voters should support their candidates and causes this year.

Apparently with these final campaign pushes also comes a reemergence by government cheerleaders posing as respected journalists.

Former Amarillo Globe-News columnist Jon Mark Beilue appeared in a new video this week for Build Amarillo PAC, a committee which is advocating for passage of a $275 million downtown projects bond that is on the ballot this year. In the video, Beilue makes his cases for why voters should approve Proposition A and the 39% tax increase that goes with it, saying, “it’s this generation’s turn now to carry that torch forward.”

With this video by Mr. Beilue, I wanted to take an opportunity to respond to his statements and make my case to voters. That’s the establishment’s message, to blindly make an impulse purchase by signing on for this project. This is the grassroots’ response of why doing that is a bad idea.

Before I go further, I want to mention that I rarely respond to Jon Mark Beilue’s articles, as while disagree with virtually all of Beilue’s political cheer leading, I never feel like taking this former journalist to task is worth it. However, when it comes to local government issues, it’s another ballgame.

A major part of the reason I decided to start The Pioneer in 2016 was because of Beliue’s sideshows on the front page of the Globe-News, cheer leading for anything the establishment was pushing. I felt then that Amarillo deserved better.

Now, the establishment is pushing Proposition A and the cheer squad is back. With the return of the cheer squad is Beliue’s latest sideshow to distract Amarillo voters from the reality of what Proposition A would truly mean for local residents.

Once again, I feel that Amarillo deserves better than to be lied to and misled about this project.

Supporters of Proposition A like Mr. Beilue are asking you to blindly sign on to this project in the spirit of the Amarillo Civic Center’s original bond passage in the 1960s. It is clear in his video that Mr. Beilue is attempting to draw parallels to the current economic recession and the local recession that followed the closure of the Amarillo Air Force Base in the 60s.

“It was in that atmosphere that city fathers and citizens and visionaries made the decision that this city would not die on the vine,” Beilue says in the video. “That in a time when most people would kind of close ranks sort of hold on to what they had with a death grip, this city courageously went forward with a bond to fund the current Civic Center.”

That is a lovely story that Mr. Beilue tells in his video. However, that bond was a $5.5 million issue, not a record bond of $275 million, with an extra $44 million included in the project that won’t be placed on the ballot. That bond was for the Civic Center. This bond includes the Civic Center. There is a major difference.

The bond voters passed in the 1960s was exclusively to build the Amarillo Civic Center. Our current bond includes the Amarillo Civic Center Complex renovations as one of a number of projects to be completed. This is not the 1960s and this is not the 1964 Civic Center bond.

If the 2020 bond passes, you will also be paying for a second parking garage, when the first parking garage built downtown is not even filling its retail space.

If the 2020 bond passes, you will be paying to hand our local government a brand new, bright and shiny city hall, when the current facility operates just fine.

If the 2020 bond passes, you will be paying to complete projects which voters already declined to fund four years ago, such as the renovation of the Santa Fe Depot.

This is not the 1964 Amarillo Civic Center bond. This is the 2020 downtown bond, with the Amarillo Civic Center included. Calling this year’s bond the Civic Center bond is like calling it the City Hall bond. Both projects are included in the spending package, right?

Another claim which is made by Mr. Beilue in the video is a statement calling on the current generation of taxpayers to pass this bond for the next generation of citizens.

“We’ve got to believe in this city like those from the 1960s believed it in, that those who founded this city in the 1880s, they believed in it.” Beilue says. “It’s this generation’s turn now to carry that torch forward and do what we know must be done.”

As someone who is in the next generation of citizens of Amarillo, I want to address this statement.

I am 22 years old. I am a small business owner and a graduate of Amarillo schools. I am currently attending West Texas A&M University. I started my career here and I will probably spend my entire career in this community. What I want is a city where economic growth is possible because of a positive economic climate. I want to live in a city where I am not going to be taxed out of my home. I want to live in a city where we are unafraid of making the changes that benefit all of the citizens in Amarillo, not just those who are part of the establishment.

This bond is not beneficial for Amarillo as a whole, but rather benefits only the local government and the establishment. It is not responsible to put $319 million on the taxpayers’ credit card in the middle of a recession. Taxing your community into oblivion is not the way to achieve economic growth, but is actually a step backwards, creating higher costs of living.

Passing this bond would cause numerous costs to go up for average Amarilloans. Homes valued at $100,000 will see an annual tax increase of over $130 per year. Those who pay rent in Amarillo will likely see their rent go up as a result of this item’s passage, as property owners look to recoup costs.

Don’t sell this thing like it’s some kind of brave step forward for our community. This is the largest tax increase in Amarillo history and it’s not even all for the Civic Center. Calling this bond a brave and bold move for our city is like comparing Polk Street to the Autobahn. It’s simply not true.

It’s great to hear a rousing speech about Amarillo’s past, but that is not enough for me to agree to mortgage my future, my children’s future, and my grandchildren’s future on an idea that this is good for Amarillo without any specific guarantees that Amarillo will not lose money on this project like we have on virtually every other big-budget project brought forward in recent memory.

Amarillo cannot afford this tax increase right now to approve a project that isn’t even entirely for the Civic Center and still contains so many unknowns.

Local voters need to be bold this year and tell our local government we will not agree to more debt to fund a project which is not even citizen-focused. Amarillo taxpayers are not the money tree whose existence is to be shaken every few years to fund a bond put forward by the same people who refer to us as the “hyper-vocal minority.”

Make the bold choice and send a message to City Hall that we are done being run over by a government that refuses to listen to our concerns.

Vote against Proposition A.