By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

Is acceptance the quickest path to recovery? Not at City Hall.

On Tuesday, the Amarillo City Council held its regularly scheduled meeting. During the meeting, a committee was discussed to reportedly study partnership options for the Civic Center since Proposition A was handily defeated by voters on November 3. Aside from this joke of a committee, which will appear to have two members consisting of a City staff member and an establishment lackey, there was another interesting point brought forward during this discussion.

Mayor Ginger Nelson once again publicly addressed the defeat of Proposition A by blaming the measure's defeat on “misinformation.”

“The results of the election, I think were disappointing,” Nelson said. “But, it’s our system and I respect and honor each person who cast their vote. I think the most disappointing thing was the misinformation put out in the community about the change in the tax rate.”

Oh, Mayor Nelson, just accept the result already.

See, while Nelson loves to say she respects the result of the election, she never will admit why Prop A actually went down. She and the minions of Amarillo Matters constantly claim misinformation, but refuse to address the fact that the 39% tax increase number they dispute was put forward by the City and was confirmed by Amarillo City Councilwoman Elaine Hays in a social media post day before the election.

Still, it can't be true. It must be misinformation, right?

Nope.

It's always easy to claim misinformation when you lose an election. However, the truth is voters voted down Prop A because of the numerous trust issues at City Hall and the problems with the tax increase. Can anyone honestly say that a 39% tax increase made sense during a recession?

It seems that Ginger Nelson will remain in denial about the election result on Prop A until the end of time. However, it isn't just Nelson, as the entire establishment seems unwilling to accept that voters are independent enough to make a decision the City doesn’t agree with based on something other than misinformation. I can only imagine the conversations that took place at Amarillo Matters/Build Amarillo headquarters on election night to spin the results.

“We lost? It must've been Alex Fairly and Randy Burkett. Maybe it was the Pioneer. Or how about those darn billboards? Wait a minute, I bet it was the misinformation! Voters can't think for themselves, right?”

At the end of the day, Prop A went down because voters stood up to their bully government. No amount of grandstanding by the Mayor about Alex Fairly, the billboards, or the alleged misinformation will change the result.

Mayor Nelson, you’re in denial. People voted against Prop A for a variety of reasons and misinformation wasn't one of them.