Colorado’s Future?
Today’s Denver Post tells the story of what is befalling the city of Colorado Springs after residents there defeated a property tax increase that would have replaced disappearing sales tax revenue.
More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops – dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.
Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.
Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.
City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open.
Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.
For years, in the public discourse, the connection between taxes paid and services received has been increasingly forgotten. Colorado Spring’s experience should be a stark reminder that taxes represent a community’s decision to collaborate for a common good — whether that be safety, sanitation, schools or parks.
The state of Colorado should look at Colorado Springs as the canary in the coal mine; with billions of dollars in cuts this year and last, the state is going down the very same path.
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