Good morning West Texans and all you good, fine, friendly folks out there who wish you were . . .

Chad Hasty did a nice job on the site breaking down some of the components in the upcoming bond issue facing Lubbock voters. For my money, and it is my money, it is quite simple right now. Can we separate “wants” from “needs”? As it is presented right now there are some wants on the bond proposal but the needs are strong enough to make me vote for it.

I’m all for re-doing 34th St. and if nothing else gets done from the bonds then it was worth it. Lubbock needs to get serious about how it spends money. For too many years infrastructure has wasted away while the City “leaders” embraced wild fancies and visions of how to spend the public money that really didn’t address the needs of the citizens.

I’m generally opposed to publicly financed “redevelopment programs” for down towns and other areas. To me, that is choosing winners and losers using government to artificially spur growth somewhere it shouldn’t be. Fixing roads isn’t that. . .

There are already strong businesses on 34th St and down town for that matter. That Lubbock has ignored the streets and other infrastructure for so long that it has come to this is a shame. Lubbock just got voted the 12th best small business mid-sized city in the country by a CNN study. That’s great. If you look at 34th St. from I-27 to Slide you can see it may be the longest stretch of mainly small, locally owned businesses in the nation! Now it is time to back that up by having government do what it is supposed to do and that is equally and fairly distribute the money to fix roads and have great opportunity everywhere in the city, not just where certain interest groups think it should go or want it to go for personal reasons.

There are other items on the bond vote that I don’t think should be a priority right now. Yes, soccer fields fall into that category right now. Yes, “splash pads” fall into that category right now. I wish they weren’t on there, but the folks pushing for it screamed loud enough so now it is time for them to make it work when it does pass. The soccer folks need to show how much economic impact those new fields will make. I seriously doubt it will come close to what they say. If they really did generate money, the private sector would be lining up for the chance to get some free land from the City to turn it into a privately-run complex and we’d all make money. Not happening.

Still, the good out-weighs the bad on this bond so I sincerely hope you vote for it to pass. Then, and this is the big part, hold the City “leaders” accountable and make sure they spend the money you approved on the things you approved it to be spent on. If that doesn’t happen, than that’s a YOU problem and not the politicians. They’re like little kids, you’ve got to hold them accountable.

MORE LATER

HYATT