Boulder Daily Camera guest columnist Bob Greenlee takes the County Commissioners out to the woodshed for their misleading Open Space ballot language as they ask for more open space funds.
The language is rather sneaky because it asks voters to approve a new sales tax in order to generate $5.85 million in 2011. To compute the full amount of the tax, however, you need to multiply $5.85 million by a factor of 20 because the tax runs until 2030! A simplistic estimate produces a total cash haul of over $117 million without contemplating inflation adjustments of tax revenues that will obviously occur during the two-decade term. It should also be noted that nowhere in the ballot language will you find that $117 million figure.
However, most aggregious of all is this little gem…
The ballot language says some other things. For example, if the bond and interest payments aren`t covered by the new tax the county`s general fund and “other legally available funds” will be garnished to pay the debt.
I’m sure the purpose of that language is to get the lowest bond rates available.
The Open Space department and the Boulder County Commissioners need a total overhaul. I’m sure there’s a Ron Stewart clone ready to step into his footsteps without missing a beat but it would be nice if there’s at least a single County Commissioner that doesn’t worship prairie dogs and would at least question open space spending?
Where’s my “No more open space spending” bumper sticker? Enough already.
