After reading the Aug. 7 “Action Line” column, I felt the need to clear up some misconceptions regarding how “... the people of La Plata county won’t even pay for maintaining roads, having twice rejected tax hikes for that noble and necessary purpose.” To clarify, the people of La Plata County actually did pay to maintain the roads. It’s rather that the administration chose to spend it instead on the remodel of the county administration building, which is used by a mere 5 percent of the population.
Then, in the same breath, the county turned to the taxpayers and asked us to agree to a tax hike of $ 3.9 million because they had “nobly” spent all $ 4 million of our road and bridge money on their new chairs, furniture, carpet, etc.
The important people that manage our taxpayer dollars knew without question there was no way we would approve that much money for the remodel of an existing building, so they purposely chose not to ask us. Once that money was squandered, they had to devise a strategy to fund road and bridge repair, which is utilized by 100 percent of the population, and coincidentally, was estimated at $ 3.9 million.
While there may be mitigating circumstances regarding the appropriate dispersal of financial resources, the fact remains that the resources that were available were not properly budgeted in the face of the obvious and looming foreseeable future of declining oil and gas revenues. Until the current administration is held accountable, faces reality and decides to look out for the interest of its citizens before themselves, we the taxpayers can expect more of the same in the years ahead.
Jeff Pratt
Durango
