Springs 2010 budget, attempted MASSIVE tax increase with Prop 2C (Colorado Springs: hairstylist, loan)

[Bullitt007]

2C isn't about CSPD/CSFD vs. taxpayer increases. I'm amazed at how many people take this hook, line and sinker! City leaders across the nation always put their PD and FDs in the middle to get the tax increases. More and more people are not falling for this anymore.

Bottom line...voting against 2C isn't a vote against CSPD and CSFD...it's a vote against irresponsible spending and holding city leaders accountable...after all, they work for US.

Nearly every resident of Colorado Springs has had to cut back, to include employers...it's now time that government is cut back to a level that forces them to spend wisely.

There are so many areas that money could be saved...that should be looked at far before tax increases during a recession.

[COflower]

Originally Posted by Bullitt007

Bottom line...voting against 2C isn't a vote against CSPD and CSFD...it's a vote against irresponsible spending and holding city leaders accountable...after all, they work for US.

Exactly!

[Hydroshock]

I agree, vote no. I don't want to see my mortgage payment go up because the city decided to do all sorts of irresponsible spending. The Colorado Springs economy wasn't hit nearly as hard as the rest of the country. We shouldn't have a radical deficit.

[Smoke_Jaguar4]

Interesting thread, we're moving to CS in December.
Chances are this proposition will fail, and the local goverment will have a deficit. So what exactly would you cut? I've only seen one idea in this thread: consolidate school districts. Since its your money, what else can get reduced? Come on people, get specific.

[Bideshi]

Since I don't live in COS (yet) I don't really have the right to a voice on this vote, but some things occur to me: I hear complaints about the roads and poor public transport, and you presently have very low property taxes compared to most places. It is inevitable that taxes will go up everywhere because government is broke. If we want good roads, they have to be funded. Government and taxes in themselves are not bad, it's mis-use of them that are bad. You that live there know much better about that than I do, so I'll shut up now.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Smoke_Jaguar4

Interesting thread, we're moving to CS in December. Chances are this proposition will fail, and the local goverment will have a deficit. So what exactly would you cut? I've only seen one idea in this thread: consolidate school districts. Since its your money, what else can get reduced? Come on people, get specific.

That's the problem. People chant "cut my taxes" but they rarely get specific about what to take off of the government's "to-do" list.

Trucks are rolling now for 24+ hours to plow the snow, spread salt and sand, cops work the car wrecks, etc; cut that? NO!

People are lining up to get their flu vaccines; cut that? NO!

Bust a tie-rod on a pot hole; shall we cut the road budget? NO!

GIMME GIMME MY SERVICES. Gee, does I gotta pay fer dim thangs? Me?

Myself, I'd relish the chance to sit down with the city budget and really go through it. I'm sure there is some waste. But it makes no sense to me to take a meat axe to the income side of the ledger without finding things that can be cut WITHOUT impacting services. If service cuts cannot cover the shortages in the income side, raise the income side. Coming to agreement on WHAT to cut is always the tough part, but the "cut my taxes" folks only wants to cut stuff they don't use, like bus service for disabled workers and the working poor, or services for seniors, or parks for people with kids, etc. The two sides will never come to terms on this.

Groups like "Citizens for Cost Effective Government" should've been involved in this matter YEARS ago by going through the city budget line by line, questioning everything, working towards their so-called "cost effective" ideal vision of government, not now that the house is on fire.

[lalahartma]

Originally Posted by Bob

cops with radar guns giving tickets for 2 MPH over the limit on Powers

Isn't this a revenue source?

[TommyGavin]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Another side issue I've always wondered about is why are fire engines dispatched to auto wrecks or EMT calls, instead of sending an ambulance, which shows up as well? Part of that seems to be that many fire fighters are EMT-trained and able to get there faster than ambulances which, IIRC, are commercial firms, not city-owned like the police and fire.

I can’t comment directly on how CSFD performs it’s EMS directly, but I can help to answer part of your question from my experience in Milwaukee.

In Milwaukee, we provide EMS on a tiered system, which means that the response provided is based upon the caller information provided to dispatchers. Depending on that information, an EMS response will be anything from a private ambulance by itself, to the closest engine/truck company along with a fire department paramedic ambulance.
All members of the fire department are trained to the EMT-basic level, at a minimum.
What this type of response matrix provides is the most efficient delivery of emergency medical help.
Not every person who calls 9-1-1 requires paramedic levels of care. Paramedics are highly skilled people, who are able to bring the ER to wherever the help is needed. They are able to administer about 28 different medications, stick a needle in a heart, insert advanced airways, and work as the eyes and ears for a doctor.

Firehouses are placed in communities based on response times, rather than call volume. Because fires spread very quickly, and permanent brain damage occurs equally as fast when a heart stops beating, a timely response is necessary in order to provide a quality service. By quality I mean one in which peoples lives can be positively affected.
Having this type of a need seems to fall naturally into the hands of most fire departments, provides for efficiency in the delivery of service, and ensures a uniform delivery of service for all corners of a community.

Hopefully that answers your curiosity a little bit. If it doesn’t ask away, these are important things to know in our communities.

[havonasun]

I'm moving there. This sucks. I've put many parts of my moving plan in motion, and now there's hardly time to change them. Taxes were a selling point for me, but it seems that I'm walking into hellish chaos. Aren't there some thousands of soldiers moving back? They are all buying up the real estate....and shopping! That should boost the local economy. What about taxing medical marijuana? Isn't that the pitch California made? (Probably a really bad example) What about a gradual increase in tax? What about all of the neighborhood and commercial developments going up that make you guys look like a boom town? COS is VERY attractive from the outside, how can the city be in such a bad way that they have to double taxes? What about the articles I've read that say the front range, and the state, are recession tolerant because of the strong federal presence? Either the report is a scare tactic or all of you need to grab your ankles. BTW, as over-zealous as your police department sounds, why does the COS crime map look like a forest?

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

That's the problem. People chant "cut my taxes" but they rarely get specific about what to take off of the government's "to-do" list.

Trucks are rolling now for 24+ hours to plow the snow, spread salt and sand, cops work the car wrecks, etc; cut that? NO!

People are lining up to get their flu vaccines; cut that? NO!

Bust a tie-rod on a pot hole; shall we cut the road budget? NO!

GIMME GIMME MY SERVICES. Gee, does I gotta pay fer dim thangs? Me?

And where does a clandestine $53 Million taxpayer-funded gift to the USOC for a training facility that generates little but a few bragging rights for the city fit in here? Gee, why we gotz ta pay for them thar thangs, too??!!

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Myself, I'd relish the chance to sit down with the city budget and really go through it. I'm sure there is some waste. But it makes no sense to me to take a meat axe to the income side of the ledger without finding things that can be cut WITHOUT impacting services.

The City Council planned their spending based on crazy, unsustainable growth. The 41% hike in water rates this year was attributed to a dropoff in tap fees paid when a developer puts a new building on city water. They grew fat and lazy on developer/growth "crack," and now you suggest that getting them off of it is taking a meat axe to the budget? No, uh-uh, preserving revenues at the peak of an unsustainable boom driven by limitless projections of false debt-driven wealth can't be the answer. Reversion to the trend line may look like an axe, but it's necessary to get back to a long-term sustainable reality.

Simply put, we have become addicted to an unaffordable array and level of services provided by the city government. Look at how much less our rural neighbors to the east and west live with day to day...much of Colorado Springs' service infrastructure is "nice to have" rather than "must have." We need to learn the difference.

I'm not part of the "cut my taxes" crowd, I'm part of the "stop raising my taxes" crowd. I watched a steady stream of special interests parade before the city council at their recent budget meeting, all bleating "please don't cut my program." Since when did museum curators become an essential city service?