Rarely is a verbal response to a budget surplus seen that tickles my fancy, so when it happens, there are little tingles in my arm hair.
“Cut our taxes and give it back. Don’t just waste it on junk. Just like when they need more money they raise taxes, when they have extra they should give it back.”
– Upper Valley homeowner Farzad Malekzadeh
Amen brother.
The El Paso times reported last week that the county ended fiscal year 2007 with $23 million more than it had planned. That is phenomenal. County Judge Anthony Cobos was quoted saying “We’re practicing conservative accounting and that has resulted in us being $22.9 million under budget”.
First of all, if El Paso county can do it, anyone can do it – city, county, state. However, we all saw what happened when the State of Texas had a multi-billion dollar budget surplus at the beginning of the 80th session: they found a way to fritter away the money, and then want more.
Let us hope that El Paso gets it right (no pun intended): give it back to the taxpayers. Though there is a sinking feeling in my stomach that they will find a way to spend that money since the “county may not be ready to lower taxes”, there is hope.
Bells of praise ring throughout El Paso county when those who control the taxpayer’s money practice fiscal responsibility. All levels of government should take note.
