Artist’s rendition of proposed Amarillo Civic Center renovations/Artwork provided by City of Amarillo
By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief
The City of Amarillo has gotten away with a lot of ridiculous things over the years, but the brazenness of Mayor Ginger Nelson and her City Council is truly unique. Under this City Council’s watch, the public has been cast to the side more than once while city leaders try to enact, fund, or, in some cases, resurrect policies and projects that voters have already declined to support.
First, Mayor Nelson’s City Council pushed hard for a new city hall, even when voters said they weren’t having it. Despite some push back, the City Council got what they wanted anyway and issued debt to create a new city hall.
Now, after voters told the City Council that they would not support funding a new civic center, the Nelson-led City Council has decided to push it through any way, using a form of debt issuance meant to fund emergency projects by local governments.
It’s our money, it’s our debt that we will be paying off, but the City Council believes we aren’t smart enough to decide for ourselves whether we can afford the project. Amazing.
Either way, after the City Council — with the exception of taxpayer champion Cole Stanley — decided to issue the debt through the back door, local business leader Alex Fairly stepped up and said “enough is enough.” Fairly, who was instrumental in defeating the City of Amarillo’s civic center bond proposal in 2020, filed a lawsuit to stop the City Council from issuing the debt. But, last week in court, the City of Amarillo remained defiant, refusing to pump the brakes on their unprecedented debt issuance.
Today, Judge William Sowder issued an order setting the hearing over Fairly’s lawsuit for early October. This comes also as the City of Amarillo has been ordered to allow for Fairly’s request for expanded discovery in the case.
This may just seem like an issue of local government finance. After all, we’re just talking about city tax dollars here. What’s the big deal?
Let me say this: this lawsuit is about way more than just Amarillo and is about way more than just the civic center project. This lawsuit is about whether or not local government across Texas will have the authority to unfairly burden their taxpayers with debt passed without voter approval through anticipation notes for non-emergency infrastructure expenditures.
Fairly is standing up for every Texas taxpayer in this lawsuit. He is standing up to local governments and demanding that city leaders respect their taxpayers by not seeking workarounds to avoid taking their debt issuances before voters.
In essence, Fairly is standing up for fiscal responsibility across our entire state. He is leading the fight on this issue and he is completely right.
I thoroughly expect that as we inch closer to the hearing, more people will continue to pay attention to this case, and in October, the eyes of Texas will fall squarely upon Amarillo. It will be in an Amarillo courtroom where a major victory for fiscal responsibility will be earned, or where local governments will be given yet another free pass to tax their citizens into oblivion.
This lawsuit matters, not just for Amarillo, but for all of Texas.