Timothy Crow is broke and faces losing a small farm he has owned in Rocky Ford for decades. Landowners caught up in the water conservation easement debacle now face bankruptcy and loss of their land as a result of the state coming after them for back taxes. (Mahala Gaylord, The Denver Post)
Re: “Easement program failures penalize taxpayers, landowners,” Dec. 21 business news story.
Your report on the failures of Colorado’s conservation easement program failed to examine the very core of this issue and the many other social engineering issues that meddling bureaucrats believe are governmentap duty. Developing tax schemes to encourage groups of taxpayers to behave in certain ways invariably and inevitably results in greed finding loopholes, which greatly threatens the original goals. Why can’t government simply levy and collect taxes, maintain the public infrastructure, and tell those looking for tax favors for a new sports arena, a big box store or a wildlife habitat, “Have a nice day”?
Craig Farr, Commerce City
This letter was published in the Dec. 28 edition.So the state offers valuable tax credits to land owners for easements “with the intention the program would be self-regulated”? What could possibly go wrong?
Daniel Bryce, Thornton
This letter was published in the Dec. 28 edition.
