Be careful when you’re asked to sign a petition. It could end up costing you money – not just because the petition was for an election that effectively raised taxes. As we all know from John Andrews, the Independence Institute and sundry other voices, a reduced state tax refund for five years would lead to the end of civilization as we know it.
These petitions are different. This story starts with the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. One of about 50 conservancy districts in our state is based in Salida and covers all of Chaffee and Custer counties, as well as the western part of Fremont County up river from the Royal Gorge.
Some time ago, some people started circulating petitions in eastern Fremont County – Cañon City, Florence, Penrose and environs – to join the UAWCD.
Normally in Colorado, you sign a petition and then there’s an election. But water conservancy districts don’t work that way. The petitions go to the district court, and if the court accepts them, then the relevant area is annexed to the conservancy district. There is no election.
The petitioners are required to get signatures from 5 percent of the owners of real property inside municipalities, and 25 percent of the owners of irrigated land outside municipalities. That’s not anything close to a majority, but if the court accepts those petitions, then everybody in the relevant area starts paying property taxes to the water conservancy district.
The residents don’t have much to say about how the district, which has powers of eminent domain, operates in their name with their tax money. That’s because water conservancy district directors are appointed to four-year terms by district judges.
The petitions in Fremont County were submitted earlier this year, and the district court in Cañon City was scheduled to rule on the annexation petitions on July 15. If Judge David Thorson accepted the petitions, then the UAWCD could expand to cover all of Fremont County.
But along the way, the UAWCD had picked up opposition. The Chaffee County Commissioners were already fighting with the district because the county had filed for a recreational instream flow water right for the Arkansas River through Buena Vista and Salida, and the UAWCD opposed it. There were a couple of small reservoirs that the county owned, but had assigned operation to the UAWCD – and Chaffee feared its interests would be threatened if the district was dominated by Fremont County.
There were property owners in Fremont County who made the argument that their taxes could go up if they got put into the UAWCD. Thus there should be a TABOR election. The district said it wasn’t raising its tax rates, so no TABOR election was necessary. That’s something a court might have to sort out.
Judge Thorson said there might be merit to some of those claims, but he set them aside to focus on whether the petitions were adequate, and continued the hearing several times until he could find out.
My friend and neighbor Mark Emmer has forgotten more about computers than most people will ever know. He put six of seven machines to work downloading the entire Fremont County Assessor’s Office database. Half a dozen local volunteers typed in the petition signers’ names, which were compared to the assessor’s database. They found that people had moved, given wrong addresses, failed to sign as trustees when they should have, etc. And they got a good attorney, Bill Alderton, who’s also our county judge.
The petitioners needed 540 signatures of municipal residents. They submitted 589. Only 523 were valid. The court never got to the irrigated-landowner petitions before ruling that municipal petitions were deficient and the UAWCD expansion was dead. That also meant that the TABOR question would not be considered, since it was moot – even if it would be useful to have the answer.
State law treats these “inclusion petitions” differently than initiatives or referendum petitions. If inclusion petitions are contested and found insufficient, the petitioners are required to pay the court costs and the challengers’ costs – which might run to $15,000 here.
So, be careful signing petitions, especially if they have anything to do with water. They could end up hitting you in the wallet.
Ed Quillen of Salida is a former newspaper editor whose column appears Tuesday and Sunday.
