{"id":51807,"date":"2022-06-03T01:59:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T01:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=51807"},"modified":"2022-06-03T01:59:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T01:59:09","slug":"once-more-what-about-that-no-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=51807","title":{"rendered":"Once more, what about that &#8216;no&#8217; vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>My cheap-seat perspective has me wondering once again about what is transpiring in Amarillo.<\/p>\n<p>My mind keeps asking: If city voters said &#8220;no!&#8221; to a bond issue to spend $275 million for a new civic center and City Hall, what makes it better for the City Council to act <em>without voter perspective<\/em> on the very thing they rejected nearly two years ago?<\/p>\n<p>The council has issued $260 million in something called &#8220;anticipation note&#8221; to pay for the project that voters rejected. A local businessman, Alex Fairly, has challenged the city with a lawsuit filed in 108th District Court. Someone sent me a copy of the lawsuit and I have looked it over. It&#8217;s pretty straightforward. It alleges that the city is acting illegally with those anticipation notes, contending they aren&#8217;t meant to be spent on this enormous project.<\/p>\n<p>Back to my question about that earlier vote against this idea.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Ginger Nelson said she wants the city to act in a way that doesn&#8217;t overload taxpayers. Hmm. The city tax rate would increase 29.5% with the anticipation note. The municipal tax rate would increase from 44 cents per $100 valuation to 57 cents. Is that too big a burden? Some folks might think so.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amarillo.com\/story\/news\/2022\/06\/02\/amarillo-city-council-vote-fund-civic-center-challenged-court\/7489679001\/\">Amarillo City Council vote to fund Civic Center; challenged in court<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t believe cities, when handed an electoral defeat of the magnitude that occurred in Amarillo, should conduct the kind of razzle dazzle we&#8217;re seeing taking place. Voters who take their roles seriously as the &#8220;bosses&#8221; of those they select to govern have good reason in this case to wonder: How can the city&#8217;s governing council believe it can get away with this?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"mailto:johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com\">johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My cheap-seat perspective has me wondering once again about what is transpiring in Amarillo. My mind keeps asking: If city voters said &#8220;no!&#8221; to a bond issue to spend $275 million for a new civic center and City Hall, what makes it better for the City Council to act without voter perspective on the very &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=51807\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Once more, what about that &#8216;no&#8217; vote?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[288],"class_list":["post-51807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-amarillo-city-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51807","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=51807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51808,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51807\/revisions\/51808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}