By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

At Amarillo City Hall, local voters have seen their taxes rise for four consecutive years, with favorable votes by nearly unanimous City Councils each time. However, while the constant tax increases are inherently bad, it is also worth mentioning the chaotic course of spending that takes place at City Hall.

As I mentioned in an editorial last week, Amarillo taxpayers are on the hook each year for up to $465,000 in lobbying fees, paid out to lobbyists who do not even live in our own community. One lobbyist is even paid an amount that possibly exceeds the salary first set for city manager Jared Miller when he arrived in Amarillo.

That spending is unacceptable, but voters need to move beyond disapproval and ask how this mess ever got started in the first place.

When Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson and her City Council — Council members Freda Powell, Eddy Sauer, and Howard Smith — were first elected, each of them came to the table promising to “change the tone” at City Hall. Each of these Amarillo Matters shills promised to bring stability back to local government. Instead, all they have done is bring bad spending habits to our local government, spending money on unnecessary items while claiming an inability to pay on necessary projects.

Consider that this current City Council considered slashing the budget for our library system while giving the city manager’s office a raise. Consider that this City Council was unable to fulfill certain debt service obligations last year with promised revenues, while still pushing to add even more debt to the City’s accounting books through one of the largest bond elections in this city’s history.

Tell me, if you were unable to make a credit card payment for a month, would your first reaction be to go out and get another credit card to buy more stuff? No, because that wouldn’t be logical. Except, at City Hall, no spending endeavors are ever logical.

So, at a time when so many people in our community are struggling to make ends meet, is it surprising that our local elected officials raise taxes then turn around and send our money to Austin to cover the salaries of lobbyists? Sadly, it isn’t surprising because Mayor Nelson and the Amarillo Matters PAC-owned City Council have never shown any inkling of fiscal responsibility.

While Nelson and the Amarillo Matters City Council will continue to push higher taxes, questionable real estate transactions, and bad spending habits at City Hall, they will undoubtedly claim to be innocent when they talk to voters this year. They will claim they never raised taxes, they never spent the money, and they never made any bad choices. They will just continue to campaign on vague things like loving Jesus and Amarillo while the taxpayers’ wallets continue to be emptied by Amarillo Matters-approved swamp dwellers.

Luckily, voters do not have to put up with this madness anymore.

This May, voters will have the opportunity to pick a brand new mayor and City Council to represent the citizens of this great community for the next two years. Amarillo has already seen some fine candidates file for the ballot, and more candidates are to be expected.

If local taxpayers are sick and tired of being used as a piggy bank by our elected officials and the PACs that own them, then now is the time to act.

Get out and vote on May 1 and let’s make a difference in this community. It’s time for a new mayor and City Council, but those two changes can only be achieved if voters get out to the polls and make it happen.

Don’t sign off on another two years of high-dollar lobbying contracts, higher taxes, and questionable spending habits. Get out and vote and let’s take back our city.