Photo by City of Amarillo
By Amarillo Pioneer Publisher’s Committee
Beginning Monday, Amarillo voters will be heading to the polls to decide the fate of eight proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution and a municipal proposition titled Proposition A, which would raise property taxes an outrageous 24 percent for local taxpayers.
It should come as no surprise to Amarillo voters that just a year after Mayor Ginger Nelson and the Amarillo City Council pushed an unsuccessful and unpopular proposal to issue $275 million in debt that would have raised taxes 39 percent that they would again push another tax increase. But, unlike the 2020 proposal that was specifically outlined for several downtown projects, this year’s proposal has no single direct focus.
Instead, the proposed 24 percent tax increase that has been put forth by city leaders this year seems crafted with the sole purpose of creating a cash infusion for the city government’s budget. No debt, no grand projects promised. Just a straight tax increase that would be the largest single increase in Amarillo’s history.
City leaders have been vague as to explaining exactly where the money would be going if Proposition A were passed. The things they have promised would come as a result of the item’s passage — pothole repair, police equipment, parks and recreation services — are already funded by the current tax rate service levels.
Instead, for the most part, the taxpayer-funded campaign to pass the tax increase has simply had its focus on telling voters that the 24 percent tax increase number isn’t actually 24 percent when you factor in other taxing districts. The only problem with that argument is that the city voters in Amarillo are voting solely on their city tax rate, which Proposition A would raise 24 percent, according to a memo that the City Council published itself. No amount of semantics will ever get past the fact that this is the largest proposed tax increase in our city’s history.
Instead of playing the semantics game with the Amarillo City Council, the best thing Amarillo voters can do is kill Proposition A on Election Day and let our city government again know that we, as taxpayers, do not want to be taxed into oblivion.
We recommend voters vote against Proposition A and defeat the 24 percent tax increase.
Early voting runs from October 18-29. Election Day is November 2.
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