Española Valley High School’s Mariachi Sol del Valle going to Washington outshines any trip a collection of politicians have ever made to the nation’s capital. Their performance in the inauguration parade will promote goodwill, and put a good face on the city of Española.
How the band is getting there is another question. It seems every public body in the Valley is lining up to hand over money to the band. To do that everyone is looking the other way and saying the band is part of the Española Public School District. So Rio Arriba County didn’t give the band $3,000 last week. It gave the school District $3,000.
That is taxpayer money the County handed over to the band. In a letter to the editor, Richard Martinez actually thanks County Commission Chairman Alfredo Montoya for his contribution. Alfredo didn’t contribute. He gave the band taxpayer money.
We look forward to seeing what other worthy public bodies the County supported with our money.
The other troublesome issue is the fund-raising the band does. It’s great they charge for their services. They’re good at what they do, are in demand and should be compensated. But where does that money go?
Of course the city of Española couldn’t care less when it comes to applying the lodgers tax law. The lodgers tax board committed to $1,000, with the caveat of another $4,000 coming the band’s way if they would promise, “to promote Española,” while in Washington. Teenagers? On a road trip? Seriously?
The lodgers tax money has not been spent properly since the early 1990s and even then there were many questionable calls.
The school District is in a tough financial situation also. It sounded smart to offer some vehicles for a road trip, although it would be a brutal one. But no, they went to the District wallet again and tossed out $6,000 for plane tickets. We’re apparently not as poor as we thought.
And the other side of this argument is, “What else would the County, city and school District waste the money on? Better this than some other project half-done in a poor manner.”
The Mariachi Sol del Valle going to Washington is a good thing for the Valley. The Valley should have stepped up and paid for it, and indirectly we all did. This is a poor time for public entities to be spending money on frivolous things and a band trip to Washington is definitely frivolous.
Good luck to the band. We hope they represent us well.