THE RAIN TAX
VOTE YES ON ("FOR") #200 and #201.
WELCOME!
- Our grassroots group wants to make Colorado Springs family-friendly. That's why we are promoting these short and simple ballot issues.
- Want to STOP the stormwater "enterprise"
abuse? Want to protect our right to vote on tax increases like the stormwater "fee" that is really a tax?
Want to phase out other, SECRET enterprise taxes, also not approved by voters, that now cost you almost $150 per year?
Of course you do!
Volunteer Here to help pass these two ballot issues in the November election.
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Citizen response to our two petitions was overwhelming! We turned in 50% more signatures than we needed.
Read the Gazette coverage
Here and
Here. We will need your help this fall to distribute fliers in public urging all
citizens to vote "YES" on both ballot issues #200 and #201. Recruit your friends. Let's get an ARMY of civic
volunteers to distribute our fliers to every city voter!
When #200 and #201 pass, the stormwater tax will END. If you pay it now, you will NOT get a refund. So don't pay it! All past due bills will be cancelled, because billing or collection of them is prohibited. Let's end the hated and illegal stormwater tax! Let's phase out the hidden and illegal utility tax ("payment in lieu of tax")! Let's defend our right to vote on all city taxes! VOTE YES on #200 and #201. |
GAZETTE EDITORIAL ENDORSEMENT
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" ...voters should approve city ballot initiatives 200 and 201 in November. Without these measures, Colorado Springs residents have no protection from unauthorized new financial obligations to City Hall." Read the rest of the editorial here |
ENTERPRISE POLICY
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"It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part."
- Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father "The power to tax involves the power to destroy." - John Marshall, Chief Justice "It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today, and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now." - John F. Kennedy, President "The only way to kill capitalism is taxes, taxes, and more taxes." - Karl Marx, Communist "The collection of any taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny." - Inaugural address, President Calvin Coolidge |
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WHAT BALLOT ISSUE #200 DOES
WHAT BALLOT ISSUE #201 DOES
- Phases out over 10 years SECRET utility and other enterprise taxes, some called "payments in lieu of taxes," that were never voter-approved. In 1991, voters enacted a repeal of residential utility taxes.These taxes are now bigger than ever with these "substitute tax" payments that are not even disclosed on your utility bill. All the savings from this gradual reduction in these illegal hidden taxes now paid to the city will reduce customer bills. Utility customer savings by the tenth year will be almost $150 per year. That's about one month's utility bill in yearly savings! The savings will be the same dollar amount for all customers. What could be more fair than that?
- Requires the council to treat enterprises as businesses, as current law requires, not as political slush funds. For start-up costs, the city loaned the stormwater enterprise $1,890,000 and the Utilities enterprise loaned it $240,000. Both loans were unsecured by any collateral--not a good business decision by Utilities, but a political directive by the politicians on the council. In July 2007, Utilities also overpaid ($184,000) another enterprise for a sliver of worthless land. Utilities admits it won't use the land. It was just subsidizing another failing city enterprise, which lacks enough funding on its own to continue. Now Utilities wants a rate increase to cover this politically motivated spending. Ballot issue #201 will stop loans, gifts, and subsidies between enterprises, or between the city and an enterprise. Such businesses must stand on their own and make sound business decisions, not be a political slush fund for the council.
WASTEFUL SPENDING
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"Colorado Springs Utilities' land purchases for a reservoir were so sloppy and costly,
City Auditor Jeff Litchfield said, it 'blew my mind.'"
(Click Here to read the full story) "The utility mistakenly gave the Internal Revenue Service an extra $1.1 million." (Click Here to read the full story) Please read the ten-page official report on wasteful city spending. (Click Here) Workers at Colorado Springs Utilities have been paid $38.7 million in bonuses in the past four years under a program that rewards more than 90 percent of the employees. (Click Here) Colorado Springs Utilities Ex-Cashier Accused of Embezzling $435,000. (Click Here) Note the $300K "accidental" overpayment by Stormwater Enterprise to the city. This misuse of Stormwater's illegal tax revenue shows why we must phase out payments, gifts, loans, and subsidies from enterprises to the city. This gross overcharge is sheer money laundering. (Click Here) |
OVERVIEW
The city budget is $360 million this year, not counting $52 million in "off-budget" spending from the RTA tax we also pay, plus other sources. Just the $360 million base budget is almost $4,000 per average family of four in city spending That's enough!
In 2001, the city asked us for a $5 million per year tax increase for drainage projects. We said 'no" and told them to cut out the waste first. The city budget is now tens of millions higher, but none of it went for the drainage backlog, and they did not cut out the waste. Now they are TAKING THREE TIMES the amount they requested in 2001, and not even asking us. How? By calling this tax a "fee" so that we can't vote on it! Calling a city public works program an enterprise (a business) also means its revenue is not subject to the city's TABOR spending limit. This is a flagrant evasion of the law because it grows city spending by violating all legal controls.
If they get away with this illegality, this "fee" can be doubled or tripled at any time. They can also impose new "fees" without voter approval for police patrol, road repair, park maintenance, salaries and bonuses, and ANYTHING else. We will no longer have any control on city spending. THE SKY'S THE LIMIT!
The same conclusion applies to the city's Development Review "enterprise." Their "customers" have no choice but to pay those coerced "fees" in order to get the same service recently provided as part of the city general fund. If "customers" don't pay, they can't use their own private property, which is a constitutional right. Therefore, it is not "voluntary" and not a "business," but yet another misuse of the regulatory powers of the city. The city is imposing mandatory regulations, then charging people a "fee" to comply with the regulations. There is no private sector alternative here, either. By the city's "logic," police who enforce laws are also in a "business" and could charge us a "fee" for watching our compliance with criminal laws. Is that next? It will be, unless we stop the city's abuse now. This is CRAZY!
Amazingly, the city is taxing churches, which the constitution exempts from property tax. It is taxing other non-profits. It is taxing the federal, state, and county governments. It is taxing school districts. So thousands of weekly church donations are being taken from religious uses and spent on city salaries. The county has a budget drain by paying $84,000 in city taxes. Taxing schools diverts funds from education to city taxes. And since when can a "business" tax the federal government?
Read our examples of city wasteful spending at this site under City Waste. Think of all the bonuses, thefts, mistakes, and other revenue losses you hear about weekly. Think of the other cases that are never uncovered! The only way to force the city council to cut wasteful spending is to put them on a true budget and make them set priorities. It begins here and now.
Stop liberal tax-and-spenders' dreams of Big Government. Keep more of our money in our family budgets!
(719) 550-0010
taxcutter@msn.com