T or C property taxes were supposed to more than double after citizens approved $3-million in general obligation bond debt for water, wastewater and road projects at the November 2023 ballot box. The state's Taxation and Revenue Department says it never got the word.
The city is still very bad at reporting and communicating with the public, but it is steadily improving its management practices.
$41.4 million in water projects given about 10 minutes and no discussion during the May 8 city commission meeting.
It has been a year since City Manager Angela Gonzales took the reins and just as it was a mystery why she was hired over other applicants it is a mystery what the city commission thinks of her performance.
Rubber-stamping is expensive. The Infrastructure Capital Improvements Plan is soon to be adopted by the city commission using its same low-information process. Is it any wonder we have infrastructure that is 60 and more years old and emergency repairs that cost twice as much as planned projects?
We don't know how the first $790,000 tranche was used and now the second tranche is to be issued. There was talk that the G. O. bond money would only be used to "leverage" or match grant/loan requirements. No reports, no follow-up.
In 447 BC, when the Parthenon was built, they knew the value of fiduciary transparency in government. Athena's dress was made of gold, in sections, so they could be regularly weighed and recorded, since it was part of the city's treasury that was kept in the public's eye.
The great artist Diego Velazquez painted royalty as they were, often blank-eyed and taken up with amusing themselves with court jesters instead of serious matters of state. There are Velazquez-like parallels with the supposedly democratic T or C city commission.
Another four years of 'on-call' contracts that short-circuit city commission and public oversight of capital projects. Department heads have carte blanche to hire architects and engineers behind closed doors.
The city commission adheres to its practice of not considering criticism or learning from it, even when a referendum checks their power. More toxic positivity will be imposed and naysayers and truth-sayers will continue to be scapegoated and castigated.
For the second time the people of Truth or Consequences have voted down this financial scheme.
The city's budget for the next fiscal year is being drafted. The people may want to push back on how it's been handled in the past. Hiring outside contractors indicates a lack of in-house competence and is expensive. Is the public paying more than it should for its local government?
