A City Gone Politically Tone-Deaf

In early November, the citizens of Amarillo voted down, once again, Proposition A, which would have raised property tax rates by historical amounts.  That marked the second time the Amarillo voters denied attempts to significantly raise taxes. 

The revenues from this historic tax increase, while vaguely described, were to go to fund things like our declining city parks and sports complexes like softball and soccer fields, police officers, and city streets.

But why would Amarillo citizens TWICE reject repairing our parks, hiring more cops, and fixing our streets?

Another survey the City conducted on 7000 city residents showed that 70% of respondents approved “increased spending” from the city to fix the parks and recreational facilities, which have not seen a significant amount of funding since the 1970s.

So, on one hand, the voters are saying “spend more money” on fixing these things, but on the other hand, “don’t raise taxes”.

Our City officials would have us all believe that this is the true dichotomy of the situation.  Raise taxes, or suffer ever-declining parks, fewer police officers, and deeper pot holes. 

According to city officials, the city would need between $3 Million and $3.8 Million per year to fix current park assets, and right now the city allocates a mere $100,000 per year to maintain those assets.  So, it’s obvious, something significant has to happen if we are to solve this problem.

In recent meetings, city officials, including Mayor Nelson, have suggested and/or considered things like closing the Amarillo Zoo, closing one of the City owned golf courses, raising golfing fees, raising taxes (twice failed), reducing certain city services, as well as “diversifying resources and funding wherever feasible”….whatever that means.  City officials would also have you believe that “every line” of the current budget has been scrutinized to the point of exhaustion, and that there is no more room for decreased spending.  Amarillo, this is not true.

The insulting part of all this begins here.  On multiple occasions, Mayor Nelson, City Manager Miller, and even Parks and Recreational Director, Michael Kashuba, have pleaded for community input on this matter.  Mayor Nelson has said, “The entire Amarillo community needs to have a say in what our funding priorities are for this very important part of our city.”  I have a few thoughts on funding priorities Mayor.

Kashuba has said, “We want the community to tell us what our priorities should be in terms of core services, in terms of what assets we should be spending our resources on because the reality is at some point, there has to be some tough decisions that are made.  If we can’t fund everything to an appropriate level, at what point do you start to remove some of those assets.”

Once again we see this false dichotomy; raise revenues, or suffer “cuts”. 

There is another way.  How about we stop over-paying for health care?

Over the past two years, I have been attempting to engage with Mayor Nelson, City Manager Miller, as well as multiple City Council members.  Previous City Council member Elaine Hays and I had a brief conversation in 2019, and more recently, I’ve had multiple conversations with newly elected Councilman, Cole Stanley.  Mr. Stanley is the only city official who has shown sincere interest in speaking about the solutions I’ve shared with the City of Amarillo on ways to dramatically reduce health care spending, one of the City’s top expenses. ($30 Million annually)

I have chronicled savings opportunities for the City of Amarillo through other blog posts in the past, as well as numerous social media posts.  In short, there is well over $1 Million of annualized savings potential within the City’s pharmacy spend, right now.  The City currently spends more than $7 Million per year on prescription drugs dispensed to covered members through the City’s health insurance plan.  It could be paying far less, but the City refuses to discuss strategies in this area.

There is another $1 Million plus hiding in broad daylight within the outpatient surgery spend.  Things like, knee and hip replacement surgeries, orthopedics, hernia surgery, general surgery, and a long list of other outpatient procedures.  There are more than 2000 outpatient surgical procedures performed and paid for through the City’s health plan each and every year. The City could be paying far less for these services through specific strategies they are either unaware of, or purposefully ignoring.

There’s another significant opportunity within the non-emergent diagnostic imaging spend the City is not addressing.  Things like non-emergent MRIs, CT Scans, Ultrasounds, and Xrays.  Combined, there is close to $3 Million PER YEAR in savings opportunities that the City is ignoring, just in these few key areas of their medical spend.  So why isn’t the City engaging in these solutions?

The City simply over-pays for these things. That is pure waste.

The City of Amarillo is SELF-FUNDED for medical benefits, and they pay medical claims up to $750,000 per City employee per year, directly with tax dollars.  Therefore, every dollar the City does not spend on health care related services is a dollar that can go back into parks, back into hiring cops, back into repairing City streets.

Now we are not talking about “less” care for City employees and their families, or “watered down” benefits either, don’t misinterpret what I’m saying.  Far from it.  These solutions not only drive down the actual cost of medical care and prescription drugs, but they also save enough money to reduce and/or eliminate deductibles and out of pocket costs for employees at the same time.  We’ve given the City multiple real-life examples of how we’ve accomplished this in other organizations over and over again.

In fact, you can watch this video to see an actual example of how I helped a friend and client save significantly on his MRIs. The story is even featured in a best-selling book entitled Never Pay The First Bill by Marshall Allen: It is strategies like this that I’m talking about. Proven, practical, and replicable strategies the City isn’t taking advantage of.

So, what is the community really saying when 70% of people surveyed approved “increased spending” to fix our parks and recreational facilities but turned down a tax increase?  They’re saying, “why don’t you look harder for ways to save money than to raise money!”

Amarillo, we know a way.  We hope you’ll share and spread this message to Mayor Nelson and our elected officials:  You have requested input from the community.  You are looking for a viable way to fund these projects.  Your attempts to raise taxes to fund these projects have been rejected, twice.  Turn your attention to your health plan.  It is the single most significant area of opportunity, but you are not taking advantage of it currently.  What will it take?