Practicing good stewardship, Atwater city leaders pay off debt and free up finances

Paying debt off early (or at all) is practically anti-American these days.

The U.S. is currently over $27 trillion in debt, which represents about $82,000 per U.S. citizen. The state of California went from having a $21 billion surplus to a $54 billion deficit, which represents about another $14,000 of debt per California citizen.

Herbert Hoover once said, “Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.” Today’s financial problems have been created by yesterday’s policy “solutions.” That’s never been truer when it comes to California’s current deficit crisis, for example, which has been created in large part by the governor’s unilateral decision to lock this state down for eight months while continuing to spend billions of dollars on socialized policies and busted politics.

And the ever-ubiquitous solution? You guessed it, more taxes. In California, Proposition 15, a proposal supported by Governor Newson, was designed to raise property taxes on commercial properties. At the federal level, one of the presidential candidate’s proposed tax hikes would lead to an effective 62% income tax rate for Californians.

Most governments continue to manage taxpayer dollars like poker players, simply “betting on the come.” The best way to face debt, they reason, is to raise taxes. Spend today, raise taxes tomorrow.

And cities in the Central Valley are not immune from this disease. One city to the north of us placed a tax measure on the November ballot rather than get its financial house in order. Even The Modesto Bee said the city is trying to pass the buck to the local voters “rather than make hard decisions.”

And even though Atwater has legitimate needs, with steadfast leadership from Mayor Pro Tem Brian Raymond, we made the hard decision recently to pay off a $1.7 million debt, eight years ahead of schedule. Our vote to pay off our debt early is one of those hard decisions too infrequently made. But we know that the road to financial peace and freedom is paved by doing the right thing first. The vote we took as a City Council is the kind of decision not seen enough.

As costs continue to rise everywhere, taxes are sometimes necessary to keep up. But only when you have shown yourself to be a good steward of public funds first, and have been fiscally responsible — shunning bad policies that waste taxpayer money — can you earn that right.

We understand that we need to make hard decisions first, before asking voters to do the same. We will pay off our debts and continue to pave the path toward financial peace and freedom. We don’t want our children to pay our debts and we don’t want to rob future Atwater.

This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 2:06 PM.