TABOR, the Colorado Constitutional amendment known as the Tax Payer's Bill of Rights is a document only a policy wonk could love (And I do have a perverse affinity for it). Not only is it convoluded but it creates bizarre interactions with other provisions of our state constitution and as a result creates the "fund transfer" which anyone with a hint of intellectual honesty knows is deficit spending by another name. The propenets of TABOR inadvertently created a path, an end run around the constitutional ban on deficit spending by municipal governments in the name of fiscal constraint ...
OOPS!
The other oops is Boulder Ballot measure 2A. One of the good features of TABOR that should be kept in a neccessary TABOR reform process is that taxes are approved by the people and have a sunset. The concept is simple;
"Hey Joe and Jane Q. Public, we got these pot holes over here we need to fix so tell you what, you gives us a .08% sales tax for 10 years and we'll take care of it, with love, your local government. Then the voters can decide if they believe the hype ... and the math.
And if they do the potholes get fixed and in 10 years the tax goes away all by itself. Unless said CIty Council then uses the rest of the general fund for Quixotic pursuits of folly. In which case other basic CIty services suffer and the council finds itself asking for an extension.
Vote YES on 2A. This is not a tax increase, its an extension of a tax that already exists. This is not the time to take a stand against high taxes etc. it is the time to say we live here and we would like to have the paved roads and sidewalks that prove we are in fact a modern city. It would have been better had maintenance not been deferred but at least now we can blame the council. Should 2A fail the blame will then rest with the public. All those who believe they are more responsible than the council, here is your chance to prove it.
For those who do want to send a message that we shouldn't have had a "2A' in the first place, elect at minimum Dan King and Ken Wilson to City Council two well know budget hawks but I would then recommend you support Fenno Hoffman, Mark Gelband and Kevin Hotaling as well. In order to get serious about the city's budget issues Dan and Ken will need not only a working majority but a Mayor who actually wants to talk about budget issues. The Mayor who will have that leadership is Suzy Ageton and she only gets elected Mayor if the council elected is majority pragmatic. I cannot stress the importance of this enough, especially since I suspect 2B and 2c will also pass, if we end up with someone like Macon Cowles as Mayor, the next two years will be all municipalization all the time with budgetary issues as an afterthought resolved by a 2A in 2013.
The choice is clear open your ballots today, or open your wallets tomorrow, its up to you.
Vote yes on 2A
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