{"id":13675,"date":"2016-03-24T02:39:04","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T02:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13675"},"modified":"2016-03-24T02:39:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T02:39:04","slug":"no-one-likes-tax-increases-but-eventually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13675","title":{"rendered":"No one likes tax increases, but eventually …"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Amarillo’s municipal leadership wears the minimal tax burden it imposes on property owners proudly.<\/p>\n

I totally understand their reason for it. No one wants to impose tax increases on those who pay the bills. I don’t like paying more in property taxes any more than my neighbors.<\/p>\n

The city tax rate is likely to become a talking point as city leaders talk among themselves — and to the public — about how to pay for the escalating cost of the proposed downtown multipurpose event venue.<\/p>\n

The MPEV price tag has gone up since the November referendum in which residents agreed to proceed with the downtown ballpark at a cost of $32 million. Well, now it’s more than $50 million.<\/p>\n

How does the city pay for it? Will it ask more from property owners who right now pay a little more than 30 cents per $100 assessed valuation for city services?<\/p>\n

It could happen. Then again, it might not.<\/p>\n

I’ve been a property owner in Amarillo for nearly two decades. We built our home and have paid our taxes gladly every year. We think we’re getting a pretty good deal for what we’ve paid since 1996.<\/p>\n

But to be candid, I’m not wedded to that dirt cheap price. Since I consider myself a “good government liberal,” I am willing to dig a little deeper when the need arises — and if it is going to help my community grow.<\/p>\n

That’s how I am viewing the MPEV as part of the comprehensive and wide-ranging effort to improve our city’s central business district.<\/p>\n

At the\u00a0time I took my post as editorial page editor of the Amarillo Globe-News, a new commissioners court took office in Randall County, led by newly elected County Judge Ted Wood. I remember the commissioners’ insistence that the county not raise taxes. They were intent on keeping the\u00a0county rate low.<\/p>\n

Then the demand for more service — caused by population growth — overcame\u00a0commissioners’ ironclad commitment to fiscal restraint.<\/p>\n

The commissioners then approved a tax increase that went far beyond the rollback rate mandated by state law. A petition came forward to roll those taxes back. It passed and the county had to reduce services as a result.<\/p>\n

The pain was temporary, but it still hurt.<\/p>\n

Amarillo shouldn’t be wedded forever to\u00a0its famously low municipal tax rate. It’s something like the second-lowest municipal rate in Texas.<\/p>\n

Stand tall, Amarillo!<\/p>\n

When the time comes, though, for an increase — even a small one — to pay needed enhancements and improvements to the city we all cherish, then we should be ready to take ownership.<\/p>\n\n

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Amarillo’s municipal leadership wears the minimal tax burden it imposes on property owners proudly. I totally understand their reason for it. No one wants to impose tax increases on those who pay the bills. I don’t like paying more in property taxes any more than my neighbors. The city tax rate is likely to become … Continue reading No one likes tax increases, but eventually …<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3153,6081,3759,3823],"class_list":["post-13675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-mpev","tag-municipal-tax-rate","tag-property-taxes","tag-randall-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13678,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13675\/revisions\/13678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}