Prioritizing would be more responsible than raising taxes

Dear Clovis city commissioners,

Please don’t rob us.

We get it. This is for a really good cause — funding the development of the interim groundwater portion of the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System.

We can’t live without water. And we’re running out of water. So you think government needs to save us.

But no matter what anyone thinks about the merits of big government and its need to “help,” you don’t have to save us by telling us to stick ’em up — hiking property taxes somewhere between $15 million and $35 million without even asking our permission.

That’s what last week’s city commission meeting suggests you’re about to do.

Instead, how about looking into ways you can fund the water project with the money taxpayers have already provided?

How about running the city the way we all have to run our private businesses and our households, by prioritizing needs and staying within a budget?

What if, say, you were to identify the city’s most pressing needs and spend the money we’ve already provided to cover those costs?

Then maybe you can call a vote to see whether the non-essential services the city provides would warrant a tax increase?

You’ve told us the owner of a $100,000 home can expect to pay between $52 and $120 more annually in property taxes if the plan discussed at Tuesday’s meeting goes through.

You seem to think the only debate that remains is the size of the tax increase. That’s wrong. We’ve been taxed enough already, to the point it’s becoming difficult to pay our own bills.

You are correct in that there are good arguments for funding the water project — mostly that we have already spent millions to move water where people need it most. Stopping now would be like purchasing everything needed for a new car except the engine.

But you already have enough of our money to pay for this water project and most of our other “essential needs,” as big government has come to define them.

We understand you don’t have enough money to pay for all those needs and all of the “quality of life” initiatives government also funds.

It’s understood that cutting funding to the golf course and the Civic Center, for example, would be controversial and upset patrons of those facilities (assuming private enterprise failed to fill the void).

But we didn’t put you in this position to please everybody, growing government ever bigger, forcing residents to rely more and more on Big Brother to take care of us.

Besides, we’re not a bottomless money pit.

The time has come for you to be responsible leaders, prioritizing the city’s needs, and then funding them within the budget you’ve been provided.

After that, you can consider asking taxpayers if they want to spend more on non-essential services.

Don’t tell us to stick ’em up and then justify your actions by saying, “We have to have water.” That’s just political spin.

Please act responsibly. Prioritize.

— David Stevens

Publisher