At least two of our La Plata County commissioners cannot and should not be trusted to spend our tax dollars responsibly. These two commissioners decided that spending millions of our tax dollars to have a federal court in La Plata County outweighed the needs of our county’s ordinary residents.

In order for the current county courthouse to be transformed into a federal court, it was necessary to vacate much of the building and relocate the departments vacated. These commissioners spent, and overspent, millions of dollars to purchase property in the Tech Center, remodel these buildings and then move the vacated departments into them. They also spent millions to purchase and then remodel more properties on East Second Avenue in order to move even more county services out of the courthouse.

Thank goodness the spending is over, right? No, these two commissioners are now spending millions more to remodel the courthouse for the new federal court. I’m sure that the six or eight people who will use the new federal court each year will be very grateful, but where is the benefit to all of us taxpayers who spent all those millions to build it?

Now that all our money has been foolishly spent, the commissioners are going to ask the voters to give them even more money to spend on the important things like roads and bridges that the many millions should have been spent on in the first place. We need to raise taxes to repair and maintain our roads and bridges. We cannot and should not trust these commissioners to spend even one more of our tax dollars wisely. If you plan to vote for Gwen Lachelt or Julie Westendorff this fall, then please vote against the tax increase. If you plan to vote for the needed tax increase, then by all means, vote against these two commissioners. Go Gwen – and take Julie with you.

Chad Fox

Durango