It is painful to read the comments for justifying the increased mill levy to pay for the airport and road and bridge projects. As was pointed out in a recent letter to the editor, the facts are being lost in the discussions.
It is a well-known fact that airport terminals are not the reason folks travel to their destinations. It is also a well-known fact that airlines do not increase capacity (bigger jets or more flights per day) unless there is a demand. A little-known fact lost in the push to have us pay for this is that enplanements are down over the past year.
I think I got it now. We don’t use the airport as much as we did, but we want the people to pay for a bigger airport. And we have to have all this now. Sounds like bad planning by the commissioners to me.
The road and bridge issue is another example of poor strategic planning and common business sense by our commissioners. It is well known by those that pay close attention to economic indicators and trends that a downturn in the resource sector, specifically oil and gas, was going to occur. They knew it was coming four years ago when they campaigned on a promise to manage the county budget in a sensible way. Millions and millions of dollars on capital improvement projects (bigger and newer offices for employees) when we knew we had a looming budget crisis coming?
Therein lies the real problem with the airport and road and bridge mill levy increase. Like gamblers who are down on their winnings, they begin to make riskier bets to make up for losses. Bad strategic planning and unnecessary spending put us all in a financial hurt. And now the commissioners want to double down with our money. Not mine, I hope.
A leader with real-world business experience is what we need now. This would not have happened with a strong leader who understands the business-planning process.
Vote right. Vote McKnight.
Dusty Beals
Hesperus
