Both candidates Richard Romero and Richard Berry have
raised a legitimate concern; the spending of "capital" funds on
"operational" expenses.
Tax dollars fall into one of two buckets; capital and operational.
Capital dollars pay to build things. Voters fill the bucket by
passing bond issues. When the issues show up on the ballot,
they represent that they will be spend on specific things;
from "streets" to "giant reflecting ponds at balloon museums."
Operational dollars pay salaries and the like.
Mayor Martin Chavez has been taking tax dollars out of the
capital bucket and putting them in the operational bucket.
This means that, at some point, tax payers are going to want to see something built, and city hall will tell them; our bad, we spent the money on something else.
I suspect that Romero and Berry suspect, that at least one of
Chavez's motives was to keep city worker voters happy.
Motive aside, there is a legitimate fundamental question;
is it appropriate to take money from the capital bucket
in order to keep the operational bucket full?
When asked that question, according
to Marjorie Childress, NMI, link,
Chavez' reply came through campaign
spokesperson Joanie Griffin
who offered;
"... Berry (is) “desperate, (and)
Chavez’s campaign isn’t going to
respond to desperate measures..”
“We’re not going to respond to desperate measures by a desperate candidate with no factual basis for what he’s saying,” she said.
When pressed on whether Berry’s numbers were factual, or not, Griffin replied that “no, they aren’t factual.”.
Either she was not asked, or she declined to respond to the question; ok then, what are the facts?
The bottom line;
in response to a legitimate question about the public interests, we cannot expect Marty Chavez to respond candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.
Instead, you can expect him to continue to deny that anyone has standing enough to ask him even the most legitimate of questions and expect him to answer.
photos Mark Bralley
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