Irresponsible is far too feeble a word to describe Augusta’s fiscal management practices. My trusty thesaurus provided me with numerous synonyms that are better suited including reckless, careless, negligent, foolish, rash and immature. My favorite synonym though was imprudent.
Opinion
Annually the city of Augusta wastes millions on superfluous nonsense. They manage to inflate the budget every year, costing taxpayers more money to provide the same services only at a lower quality. This combination of ineptness and incompetence should give all citizens pause on voting for new taxes for a new arena.
Augusta officials just released next year’s budget, which will exceed $1.1 billion. The fact that the budget increased instead of decreased is proof that city officials are not responsible enough to manage taxpayer money. If the city can’t manage $1.1 billion, why would we give them several hundred million for an arena? The answer to that question has yet to be answered in any coherent manner.
In my opinion, far better uses for new tax money exist than a new arena if taxes are going to go up.
It is imprudent to approve any new spending whether in the general budget or via new taxes. Yet somehow spending seems to increase every year, and the quality of services decreases.
Burdening taxpayers with new taxes to the level proposed goes past imprudent to the point of immoral. If you need some synonyms for immoral here are a few: wicked, depraved, corrupt, dishonest, debauched, sinful and iniquitous.
If you’re a fan of alliteration, voting for the new arena is irrational, iniquitous, immoral, irresponsible and imprudent.
Personal income taxes were due a few days ago, and property taxes are due this month. Paying both makes my temper itch, especially when the money goes to make some politician rich. Now you want to tax me more for an arena, to be built in a location that my children and I will never visit, for shows the majority of people won’t be able to afford because of the new taxes. Forget my temper itching. Now I am just flat out mad. Sorry, no synonyms for mad. You can pick your own.
Inflation is out of control, rents and housing costs are rising, grocery store visits are painful and yet we want to raise taxes for a quality of life/entertainment project. The world around us seems to be burning down, and people have less disposable income than they did at any other point in recent history, yet we want to tax and spend more.
I am not completely against taxes. My preference is to not pay them, but if they go to worthy causes, I have no issue with them. Worthy causes in my opinion would be roads, security, maintenance of public spaces and utilities. I don’t even mind paying for storm water provided I get some storm water service. Taxes that go to help those less fortunate with shelter, food and clothing are OK with me also.
As much as I think Sheriff Richard Roundtree is incompetent and inept as a leader, I would rather give him the money to build a bigger jail to house criminals and make Augusta safer than build an arena. I would rather pay taxes to build housing for homeless people than an arena. We would be better off hiring 20 former military private contractors to form a squad to patrol our city alongside a slew of mental health professionals to deal with the homeless issues. These solutions would be cheaper than an arena and truly improve the quality of life of all citizens, not just those who can afford the taxes and high show ticket prices.
The bottom line is, if the city managed its $1 billion budget properly, citizens might trust them with another couple hundred million. Until the city learns fiscal responsibility and starts to reduce the heavy burden on taxpayers, votes for new taxes will continue to fall short. It is my prediction that this new arena vote will go the same way as the last one: down the toilet along with millions of taxpayer’s monies via the annual city budget.
