Denver sidewalk maintenance fees. (Colorado Springs, Lakewood: houses, neighborhoods, construction)

[Joey2k]

https://www.9news.com/amp/article/ne...a-a97f70e27fba

Just saw an article about new fees Denver is enacting for sidewalk maintenance. I'm in Lakewood so it doesn't impact me, but curious does this mean Denver residents aren't going to have to maintain the sidewalks in front of their houses?

[reed303]

What's next ?

A "fee" (aka tax) to cover cost of street light maintenance, and the electric bill for the lights ?

Maybe $5 per month, per post, if the beam hits your property ?

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by reed303

What's next ?

A "fee" (aka tax) to cover cost of street light maintenance, and the electric bill for the lights ?

Maybe $5 per month, per post, if the beam hits your property ?

Some jurisdictions elsewhere already have a streetlight breakout in their tax bills.

[davebarnes]

1. We Denver voters voted for this.
2. The city is in the process of revising the fees.
3. Minor annoyance.

[Mike from back east]

I'll flog my dead mule one more time to point out these nitpicking fees are the devil's offspring of TABOR which has crippled the ability of numerous state and local governments to do their job. With TABOR you can't raise taxes without voter approval. When it comes to taxes people will vote against their own best interests even though having good schools, libraries, police, sidewalks, roads, etc, benefits us all. It's crazy but that's the trick bag Colorado and some other states are in with CRAP like TABOR.

In Colorado Springs they had to sell off their police helicopters, turn off street lights, let public parks rot, etc, rather than raise property taxes $200/year during the Great Recession. They became a national laughing stock -- and wonder why large firms avoid bringing jobs to their city. It's just nuts.

IIRC, Denver residents voted to exempt their city from TABOR's nonsense. In Denver, as a mature city, time and weather have degraded the sidewalks which now need refreshment. If they need a fee for sidewalks, so be it and props for being transparent about it with voters. The "freeze-thaw" cycle of Colorado weather has a strong destructive effect on concrete infrastructure (roads, bridges, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, etc). If I still lived there you wouldn't hear me complaining; I'd be voicing support for facing up to the needs.

When it comes to sidewalks this is clearly a government duty, along with streets, curbs, gutters, storm drains, etc. Ordinary citizens have no idea what construction specs are for these items, nor should they, and nor should homeowners have to hire someone to do the job. This is 100% the job of local government.

It's a shame for government to waste its time breaking out all these charges for lights or sidewalks as these simply are routine costs for municipal infrastructure. But TABOR has many jurisdictions in a trick bag where they have to play games to get the funds just to provide typical basic public safely services. There are excellent ways for citizens to manage local government spending than to take a meat axe to the revenue side and wash one's hands of what happens next. What often happens next is a failure to maintain property, public or private, which is nothing more than demolition by neglect; that's what TABOR has done to parts of Colorado where it's in effect, like in Colorado Springs where I lived 11 years.

Bottom line, pay the bill for living in a civilized city where you and your kids don't have to walk in the street or muddy yards in the dark.

Pardon my annoyance having to explain civics to adults who should've been sufficiently educated at what's appropriate when it come to governmental responsibilities and financing.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

...these nitpicking fees are the devil's offspring of TABOR which has crippled the ability of numerous state and local governments to do their job. With TABOR you can't raise taxes without voter approval.

But, this does not apply to Denver.
1. Denver has "de-Bruced".
2. Denver voters approve new taxes all the time.
3. For some reason, this is a sidewalk "fee" and the voters strongly approved it.

The sidewalk fee is a mess.
The original deal was $2.15 per linear foot of frontage. For us, that would $75/year. But, some homeowners in Park Hill with corner lots were going to get whacked for $8000/year.
The current proposal is a flat amount based upon property type. But, this has not been approved.

Meanwhile, no sidewalks are being installed nor repaired.

[smihaila]

Coming up next: LAZY municipalities greedily chasing the might buck (through property tax increases) but actually not willing to do snow removal on public streets, and instead relying on lucrative contracts with HOAs (another up trending abomination here in Colorado). With the net effect being: homeowners left to pay but public streets becoming "no man's land" and "waiting for the sun" to melt it way. Simply lazy, greedy, and unethical behavior.

This is actually happening. Right now. In Lafayette, CO. Bleah.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by smihaila

municipalities… not willing to do snow removal on public streets, …and "waiting for the sun" to melt it way.

This has been the way since the beginning of time in Denver.
It works about 97.26% of the winter.

[smihaila]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

This has been the way since the beginning of time in Denver.
It works about 97.26% of the winter.

I am of the opinion that it doesn't work. And I clearly see other neighborhoods close by (in Lafayette, Louisville, Broomfield) where they do clean the streets up in the winter. The bumpy driving experience on such roads for WEEKS in a row (when snow freezes again before getting a chance to fully melt) isn't that enjoyable. By the same extent, what if we don't even remove snow from S. Boulder Road, main roads in Boulder, or highways like I-287, US-36, etc?

[mic111]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

I'll flog my dead mule one more time to point out these nitpicking fees are the devil's offspring of TABOR which has crippled the ability of numerous state and local governments to do their job. With TABOR you can't raise taxes without voter approval. When it comes to taxes people will vote against their own best interests even though having good schools, libraries, police, sidewalks, roads, etc, benefits us all. It's crazy but that's the trick bag Colorado and some other states are in with CRAP like TABOR.

While Mike is 100% correct for Colorado Springs, they did vote against their own best interests, I disagree that TABOR is bad. I absolutely love being able to vote for or against tax increases. My city and most cities do a nice job maintaining the public areas and the city residents vote responsibly. TABOR is one of the main reasons I love living in Colorado. Colorado Springs is the place it hasn't worked and it may be because the residents are so conservative that they can't agree to do anything for the public benefit. But most areas in Colorado are not that way. I will always vote to maintain TABOR as I believe it helps keep our taxes low.