Our city is giddy. The Rockies rock! A glorious Indian summer and a winning baseball team – what more is there?
Well, if you are Mayor John Hickenlooper, there’s the challenge of passing a $550 million bond issue (a tax increase with very little sex appeal) at a time when Denverites are nervous about the economy.
An examination of the campaign’s website and pricey direct mail suggests that Hizzoner and myriad consultants are convinced the mayor’s 82 percent approval ratings and winning ways are enough to get voters to say, “yes!”
I hope so. Because despite the fact that I’m insulted by the utter lack of substantive information about the initiative (platitudes and yard signs don’t do it for this girl) I am enthusiastically in favor of the entire initiative, 1A through 1E.
Here’s why:
Mayor Hickenlooper is putting his considerable popularity on the line by addressing a little known but long-lived fact of Denver municipal finance: Despite taxpayers’ historic willingness to support investments in their city’s physical assets, no one can recall the last time the city addressed annual maintenance and repairs with sufficient resources.
Thus, regular upkeep turned into deferred maintenance … turned into deteriorating assets … turned into the necessity of replacing the asset. Historically, nearly half of every general obligation bond issue contains money for projects that should have been addressed with a regular maintenance schedule – and weren’t. As a result, major deferred maintenance or replacement was required, at a much higher cost to Denver taxpayers.
Initiative 1A, which adds 2.5 mills to your property tax rate, addresses this problem by raising $27 million annually to prop up the city’s anemic capital improvement budget.
I am supporting Initiatives 1B through 1E because all are critical investments for a thriving, growing city.
The cost to the owner of a median-priced Denver home ($255,000) is a mere $5.25 per month. Just $63 per year to support both funding increased maintenance and improvements to infrastructure. It’s a bargain if you consider that Denver has the lowest residential tax rate in the entire metro region, along with some of the lowest priced services, from rec centers to golf fees and even parking tickets!
Denver is the only jurisdiction in the greater metro area (from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins) with free residential trash service, including recycling, weekly service and large item pick-up.
If you lived anyplace but Denver, you’d be paying upwards of $20 per month ($240 a year) for a service that’s free, dependable and inclusive.
It’s a privilege to live in Colorado. It’s a bargain to live in Denver. And just as the patient owners of the Rockies have invested wisely for our benefit and pleasure in their franchise, I’m going to invest wisely (for our benefit and pleasure) in mine.
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Susan Barnes-Gelt (bs13@qwest.net) served eight years on the Denver City Council and was an aide to former Denver Mayor Federico Peña.
