{"id":44874,"date":"2020-10-23T01:16:39","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T01:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44874"},"modified":"2020-10-23T01:16:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T01:16:39","slug":"prop-a-to-receive-a-serious-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44874","title":{"rendered":"Prop A to receive a serious mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By JOHN KANELIS \/ johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

My friends up yonder in Amarillo, Texas, are going to vote on something called Prop A.<\/p>\n

It’s a measure that would spend $275 million on extensive renovation\/expansion\/remodeling of the city’s 52-year-old Civic Center.<\/p>\n

Were I still living in Amarillo I would be inclined to vote “for” the measure. Even though it would mean a significant boost to property taxes for many residents; I would be exempt because I am an old guy, so my taxes are frozen.<\/p>\n

A friend sent me a message today that tells me the municipal property tax rate would jump 38.9 percent, adding 15.1 cents per $100 to property valuation. The city already boasts one of the lowest municipal rates in Texas, about 38 cents per $100.<\/p>\n

So now the question becomes: What kind of return on investment does that tax increase bring? Proponents say it would bring convention business by the millions of dollars to the city; it would bring top-tier entertainment that passes Amarillo by because the Civic Center entertainment venue is so, um, lacking.<\/p>\n

Can that return be measured the way we measure our property tax bills every year? No, but it’s tangible nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Here’s the more interesting takeaway from this election. Amarillo is staging this election in the middle of a highly contentious presidential campaign. When the residents of that city vote on Nov. 3 whether to approve Prop A, they also will be voting for president. Turnout will be huge, man! The city has more than 100,000 registered voters; if 60 percent of them turn out to vote, that would give Prop A’s fate — up or down — the kind of mandate that is lacking in most municipal bond issue elections.<\/p>\n

I am going to speak out once more in favor of Prop A. The city needs to improve its entertainment\/business infrastructure if it hopes to keep pace with the growth that is occurring. It doesn’t come free.<\/p>\n\n

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By JOHN KANELIS \/ johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com My friends up yonder in Amarillo, Texas, are going to vote on something called Prop A. It’s a measure that would spend $275 million on extensive renovation\/expansion\/remodeling of the city’s 52-year-old Civic Center. Were I still living in Amarillo I would be inclined to vote “for” the measure. Even though … Continue reading Prop A to receive a serious mandate<\/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":[6419],"class_list":["post-44874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-civic-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44874","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=44874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44879,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44874\/revisions\/44879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}