Ron Laughery: Boulder County government doesn’t do roads?
Well, that’s sort of what the commissioners are saying. When you start fiddling with a simple concept like “we all share in the cost of our roads,” things get messy fast. Rather than just saying, “We don’t do subdivision roads anymore,” the county commissioners started drawing lines between road “routine maintenance” (which they are more than happy to pay for) and road “rehabilitation” (which they feel is completely inappropriate to pay for). I’m confused. It seems to me that, maintaining a road routinely involves occasional major repairs. I never knew that roads had to go into rehab occasionally, like Keith Richards should have. But, it’s the government and I’m sure they know what they’re talking about. Or, maybe it’s just doublespeak to keep us confused. Hard to tell.
Ron concludes…
It’s pretty clear that what Boulder County leaders are really trying to do is find a way to raise money for county government without having to tax most county residents, just those living on these rehab-ready roads. But, to do that, they have to break one of the social contracts we’ve had with our government for centuries. That seems like a bad deal for everyone. One of the hallmarks of Colorado government is transparency, and if the county needs more money to fund their activities, then they should make the case for additional taxes and ask us all if we are willing to pay them. By squeezing the road budgets and then forcing a small subset of county residents to pay more for what the county had already promised them, our County Commissioners will only make us all more cynical about future government promises.
John Lilly: Paving tax: County breached its contract
I urge residents to vote NO on the PID. Don’t let them penalize us for their malfeasance. If the PID is defeated and the county commissioners enact a LID, residents should take the county to court to enforce the terms of the original contract.
Subdivision residents are strongly encouraged to attend the Boulder County Commissioners hearing at 4 p.m. on August 14 at the downtown courthouse, 1325 Pearl St. Do not be distracted by the PID vs. LID debate, it is a false choice. We should demand that the county commissioners abide by the original contract and nothing less.
I particularly like the following comment posted at the end of John Lilly’s editorial by “itsjustthetruth”:
…. After having reviewed the county’s budget, there’s no way I would volunteer to pay for roads directly out of pocket. No way. If you do that, you might as well write “damned fool” on your chest and lay down in the crumbling streets. (emphasis added)
Vote ‘NO’ on the PID vote and be prepared to take the county to court on the LID. There are other actions you can take regarding the counties intimidation on the LID vs. PID issue but that’s a topic for another post.
