Editorial: The City Council's Property Tax Lie

City Council candidates during the 2017 municipal election/Photo by Sauer Campaign

By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

Every election cycle, I save mailers and political advertising that come in from various candidates for reference. I find these items to be a good reference point to see whether the elected officials actually follow through with their campaign promises. And looking back at advertising from the 2019 municipal elections, I can say the Amarillo City Council incumbents’ advertising seems to have one prevailing myth which has been debunked by their own actions this year.

In 2019, it was not uncommon to hear members of the Amarillo City Council say they were for low taxes. The promise came in a number of ways, such as Mayor Ginger Nelson’s promise that she would “keep taxes low and provide economic opportunity across the city,” or Councilman Eddy Sauer’s pledge that he “opposes efforts to raise property taxes.”

Whatever way it was put to voters in 2019, one thing is now crystal clear: all of the City Council’s low tax promises and pledges were total smoke and mirrors.

Consider that Nelson and Sauer, along with the rest of the City Council in a unanimous vote, advanced a $275 million bond election to be placed on the ballot this November. This bond is one of the most expensive bonds in Amarillo history and accounts for over 40 percent of the total cost of all the bonds offered to Amarillo municipal voters since 1999. This bond carries a hefty tax increase, if approved.

A flyer from the Sauer campaign in 2019 billing him as a “champion for low taxes.”/Photo by Amarillo Pioneer Staff

I’m honestly curious. In the case of Nelson, Sauer, and the rest of the City Council, how is advancing one of the largest bonds in Amarillo history, which carries a massive tax increase, following through with a campaign promise to oppose tax increases? The simple answer is, it’s not.

Nelson, Sauer, and the rest of the City Council lied to you, the Amarillo voter. They said they would keep taxes low or oppose efforts to increase taxes, in one pledge or another, and never delivered. This City Council has approved every single tax increase brought forward — effective or otherwise — without blinking an eye. They never cared though because as long as their campaign donors and Amarillo Matters continued to shell out campaign cash, they knew there would be no accountability for their broken promises.

I know Sauer also billed himself as a “champion for low taxes” in his advertising in the 2019 election. In that case, the “champion” needs to be stripped of his title.

Whether it’s Ginger Nelson, Eddy Sauer, Elaine Hays, or anyone else who is currently serving, when they pledged to keep your taxes low or to oppose efforts to raise taxes, they lied to you. They lied to you and they stole your vote on a false premise of fiscal responsibility. They should be ashamed and their dishonesty should disqualify them in the minds of voters. However, just being ashamed is not enough.

If Amarillo voters want to have a say in stopping these incumbents’ broken promises and efforts to raise your taxes, we must get out and vote in the November bond election. Proposition 1, if passed, would put a massive tax increase on your bill, brought to you by the same people who promised they wouldn’t raise your taxes when they were running for office.

Don’t be bamboozled by the campaign slogans. These guys lied to you. Now it’s time to demand accountability and defeat Proposition 1 on November 3rd.