Amarillo 2020: The Propositions that Failed - and One That Passed
Who would be the next President of the United States of America was not the only hot ticket item on the November 2020 ballot. In the City of Amarillo, Texas a trio of propositions were on the ballot.
Here is a brief rundown of the three propositions which Amarillo residents had an opportunity to vote FOR or AGAINST: Prop A would increase property taxes and fund the majority of civic center renovations, Prob B would increase the term lengths for Amarillo’s City Council members, and Prop C would allow the City Council to hold meetings biweekly instead of weekly. On November 3rd, the citizens of Amarillo rejected Props A and B, but voted in favor of Prop C.
It is a relief that Prop A was defeated, as that would have certainly hindered the post-COVID recovery of the local economy. Because this would have significantly increased property taxes on top of it being requested during an economic low-point, it is a shock that the next proposition was the City Council asking for their term lengths to be doubled, so it is also a relief that that was rejected as well. However, the last prop allowing for biweekly City Council meetings passed, which, at least for the near future, will probably not severely affect local politics. Here’s why:
Now that the City Council can hold meetings once every two weeks instead of holding them every week, there will now be less opportunities for citizens to hear from and speak to their local elected officials. This would have been a serious issue had the other propositions passed as well: this would have hindered the meetings, hearings, etc. regarding civic center renovations, and if citizens were frustrated enough by how the City Council would have handled that, the amount of time to vote any of the council members out would have been doubled. But since Prop C was passed by itself, all the headache that would have surrounded building a new civic center is non-existent… for now.
If the city chooses later on to build a new civic center or decides to take up an ordinance such as the pro-life ordinance that many cities across the state of Texas are voting on, then Prop C’s success might cause some issues but until then, business will continue as usual, just on a biweekly basis.
Jacob Meyer is a Political Science student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Hailing from Amarillo, Texas, he is currently involved in local politics in Lubbock, primarily with the Young Conservatives of Texas at Texas Tech.
