City Council Spends and Spends....

Recently, when I lamented to a colleague that my fellow citizens had chosen to use tax money to support the Abilene Zoo, he argued that he thought it was a good expenditure of money "because it brings people to Abilene where they spend money."

Let's examine that argument for a moment. Let's say a family of five drives from Sweetwater to visit our zoo. They then eat lunch at Whataburger and buy some clothes at our Wal Mart before driving home. The ONLY possible way that can help the average Abilene citizen is by generating extra sales tax that will go to the city coffers, right? (Some might argue that Joe Whataburger employee also gets more hours, as does Jane Wal Mart employee; ultimately, however, they will likely take their extra money, spend it in town, and generate more sales tax money--same argument).

However, look at this article excerpt published today from the Abilene Reporter News, our newspaper.

----------------
Abilene floats tax hike

By Sarah Kleiner / kleiners@reporternews.com
July 13, 2006

Ready for a tax increase?

The proposed city of Abilene budget for the next fiscal year includes a 1.6 percent increase in spending and a tax rate hike of 3.45 cents per $100 valuation. It shouldn't be a surprise that the city of Abilene's property tax rate will increase next year - after all, voters approved seven bond propositions in May for construction projects.

And the city is repaying general obligation bonds issued when the city purchased a police and fire communications system last year. If the proposed tax rate is adopted by the council, it will cost about $45 more next year for the owner of an $83,000 home - Abilene's average.


Gilley was optimistic about the financial outcome of the current fiscal year. The city collected more money than expected - mainly from sales taxes, the city's largest source of revenue.

[...]

The general fund's budget for the current fiscal year increased since it was approved last September. That's because the city collected and spent more money than originally budgeted. When the City Council adopts next year's budget, it also will adopt the revised budget for the current fiscal year.

------(end of excerpt)

Please understand what this article is saying: when the city leaders DID collect more money than their budget from sales tax revenue, they spent it and made the next year's budget bigger. If I am misunderstanding this article, someone please tell me.

So, don't argue that the city council will spend my tax money to lure people to Abilene as if you think that will help me in any way, because we can see that the extra money generated from out-of-towners' spending will just end up being spent elsewhere.

We MUST hold the City Council accountable for the way they spend our money. We must also have long memories of how elected officials vote to run our lives and rid ourselves of those who do not represent our best interests.