Most of the things that we brag about in Paris Texas are amenities, not essentials.
The difference is important.
Most of the more recent things Paris brags about, such as the Eiffel Tower replica, the Red River Valley Veterans Memorial, the Maxey House, the Lamar County Historical Museum, The Valley of the Caddo Museum, and others, are the result of private efforts; started and carried out to completion by private individuals – while the city has wasted about 13-years and hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to restore the Grand Theater (which, if it ever gets fully restored, may be an amenity).
Even the Civic Center and both prized and re-purposed Depots are the results of large contributions from private funds.
All these things are amenities.
And, yes, they are worthwhile, and they contribute to the community. Oh, sure, the city and other organizations in Paris supported the efforts (the city and the PEDC even giving, when they shouldn’t, tax dollars). But those efforts were started from scratch, led and supported by individuals who achieved the worthwhile results –
Of course, amenities are nice, but they’re not essential.
You can have a house full of amenities, modern or antique, but they are not part of the necessity for basic shelter. Others may not like or appreciate your rooms of stuff, amenities, but you don’t expect or demand others to pay for them.
Local churches are considered community amenities, so if some of the local Baptists need a new church, should community tax dollars pay for it?
Government supposedly is to provide for what is essential, not for amenities.
We vote to impose taxes on ourselves because infrastructure is essential to a community. In return, this creates an obligation on, and a responsibility for, the community to provide those things that are essential, such as police and fire protection, maintaining streets and traffic flows, providing water and sewer, trash collection and disposal, etc., and developing ordinances and zoning to help provide for an orderly, cohesive community; those things which benefit all the citizens.
Amenities are not used by all citizens. As an example, not everyone goes to a Baptist Church, despite us Baptists thinking everyone should…(that’s a gentle bit of humor for those of other denominations. You know, like “where you find four Baptists, you’ll find a fifth.”) Anyway….
….volunteer organizations, such as chambers of commerce, came into being to develop amenities of the community (and to be an independent business voice for a community); not to be parasites sucking up non-voluntary tax dollars.
If a project is worthwhile people will voluntarily fund it; if it isn’t, they won’t.
This is why good and sound and varied leadership is important. As long as folks voluntarily use their money to pay for what they want, it’s not a big deal, which is not true when forced to pay for someone else’s pride and joy.
Subsidizing amenities – giving tax-dollars to a favored few – deliberately and knowingly picking and choosing winners and losers – are things a city (or any government) should not do. There is no fair or equal way to spend tax dollars on amenities. The Goosey-Gander principle will not work because of personal opinions. Neither will robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Paris didn’t get behind the economic eight ball because city government did its job: Over the years, city government let things slide – from neglecting certain areas and aging streets and increased traffic flows to letting favored landlords neglect property to allowing zoning changes that drained away the downtown business district. Plus, the city started giveaway programs of everyone’s tax dollars to a special few. In short, most of what is currently wrong in Paris is because the city didn’t do its’ job –
Paris forgot that the basic job of government is to take care of the essentials.
IF a government can’t take care of what is the government’s business, how can it take care of what isn’t the government’s business?
Today, instead of doing those things – and only those things that are essential – that are their obligations and responsibilities, our local problems are compounded by the City of Paris acting as an “expert” in the development and the funding of community and economic amenities.
But when was the City of Paris endowed with Emperor status?
Since the New Frontier and the Great Society programs of the early 60’s, government advocates have promised that their economic programs would eliminate poverty. They’ve spent trillions of tax-dollars trying to do it. But according to the government’s own statistics, there are more poor people today and fewer equal opportunities for economic advancement. All those dollars and all those efforts only succeeded in creating wealth for fewer and fewer folks.
Government not only has lost the war on poverty, but also the war on drugs; it can’t even protect our border. So, it should be evident that government isn’t always the answer.
Over the years, our trust in government has slowly eroded away.
To the Paris Chamber, it seems the city (like government everywhere) tries to do too many things which are not in their job description. And as long as the city will do or fund those things which should be the responsibility of others, they will let the city do it.
And they’ll never fuss when the city does something wrong, especially if the city is also giving them other people’s tax money. Most importantly, how can the taxpayers trust the city, when the city is giving their tax dollars to a select few?
The question citizens need to ask: If we can’t trust our local government, how can we trust our state and national legislative bodies?
We should remember that while common-sense is a hoped for amenity, it isn’t a qualifying essential to serve on a board or for holding public office or even to manage the affairs of an organization.
“In fact, if law were restricted to protecting all persons, all liberties, and all properties; if law were nothing more than the organized combination of the individual’s right to self-defense; if law were the obstacle, the check, the punisher of all oppression and plunder — is it likely that we citizens would then argue much about the extent of the franchise?” ― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
return to Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce