Taxpayer8675309 wrote:
“On the re-broadcast of the 8/24/09 informal council meeting on comcast cable channel 18, aired last night, there was the city manager Penelope Culbreth-Graft speaking to Jerry Heimlicher re: “item 2,” recommending to council that street sweeping be added to the stormwater enterprise! This way, she suggested, street sweeping can be charged to citizens directly by fee also. Then Heimlicher agreed. He said, effectively, “we can argue [sic] that keeping streets clean, helps the stormwater situation”.
The way she described it, by adding street sweeping to the stormwater enterprise, that portion of the current budget allocated to street sweeping can be eliminated, saving the city $1m dollars in the budget! Since no tax cut was discussed, I guess it never crossed the minds of Penelope and Jerry that this tactic, again, would illegally place increased burden on tax payers, to pay for things they are already being taxed for, without voter approval! A clear violation of TABOR.
Is it unclear to anyone why these illegal enterprises, like stormwater, are so insidious!?!
After the re-broadcast of the 8/24/09 meeting ended. The tax-payer-funded Springs TV channel was used to try to convince viewers why it doesn’t have enough tax dollars to pay for all of the things it believes it provides for by asking “did you?” questions, like “did you enjoy the clean air?” “did you sit on a park bench?” etc. In other words, Springs TVs being paid for by you for the city to advertise to you why you should give the city more of your tax dollars, or rationalizes why it will just take more fees from you.”
Taxpayer8675309 is precisely correct. This sort of cooking of the books and slithering around the constraints of TABOR is what “enterprises” were created to facilitate, and why they should be made illegal. And the use of public television to propagandize voters should also be outlawed. It is a communication channel to permit citizens to keep watch on their public servants, not a tool for government propaganda or for pandering to City Council.
In our system, taxes are exactions imposed on all citizens in a fair and equitable, and equal manner, to pay for the necessary operations of government on a collective and compulsory basis. Fees are payments for specific services that an individual may either choose or not choose to take advantage of. We must all pay taxes for highways and water systems and salaries of public employees because we all, as a community, make use of these amenities. If the public pool charges a fee however, and you don’t want to pay the fee, you don’t swim at the pool.
When government characterizes the ordinary and necessary operations of government as optional services, but does not at the same time allow the citizenry to opt out of the resulting fees, the fee is in all legal and rational respects a tax, and should be subject to public approval as provided for by TABOR. Recently, jurisdictions all over Colorado have been jumping on the “user fee” bandwagon and have been grossly distorting the definition of a “fee” as a specific tactic to evade TABOR. Unfortunately, the Colorado Supreme Court has been complicit in this fraud on the public, so it is now necessary for the People to act directly to once again force government back into it’s lawful, appointed role of serving the public.
People usually know about their Miranda rights, which the police are supposed to read to you before they question you while you’re in custody, but most people don’t really understand why Miranda rights exist. The rule exists because police coercion and physical abuse were commonplace during interrogations of suspects. So, the Supreme Court reined in the authority of the police to interrogate people in a coercive manner.
And TABOR is to elected officials what Miranda is to the police: constraint upon the improper exercise of authority delegated by the People. It was enacted because elected officials were engaged in a pervasive pattern of fiscal shenanigans and fraud on the public.
But politicians balk at the bit, and so they consistently seek, through pettifoggery, obfuscation, lies, deceit and outright fraud, to evade both the spirit and technical requirements of TABOR. So like Miranda and the origins of TABOR, the government has abused its authority and needs to be directly constrained by the People yet again.
What I propose is that the words “or fees” be added to TABOR, both at the city and state level. These two words would do to elected officials what Miranda did to the police: put them firmly back in their place. It’s a simple, elegant change that would rein in government abuse. If they need more money, regardless of how it’s characterized or collected, they just have to ask us first. That’s the essence of TABOR.
And while we’re at it, let’s forbid all public officials or employees from making any public comments whatsoever about any citizen initiative, either for or against, while in the performance of their public duties or under color of their official authority. Public servants do not enjoy constitutional protection of personal speech when they are on the public’s dime, nor should they be permitted to trade on their official position when making private personal political statements. They have no right to object to or support a citizen initiative as public officials, and their duty is to remain silent and do as the People direct.
Therefore, I propose a citizen initiative to ban public employees and elected representatives from speaking or publishing any form of support or opposition to any citizen-lead petition or initiative. Oh, wait…that’s ALREADY what the law says. To be specific, C.R.S. 1-45-117. Never mind…
The duty of all public officials, elected or otherwise, is to be humble and obedient to the will of the People, not to arrogate to themselves unauthorized powers, assume positions of intellectual or political superiority, or exercise unsanctioned control over the liberty and direct decisions of the People in constituting their form of society and government as they choose, for better or for worse. It is their duty to obediently serve the public, not, as Woodrow Wilson and the liberal fascists of both his day and our own believe, to place bureaucrats in positions of power over the People on the premise that the bureaucrats know better what the People need than do the People themselves.
The People may make unwise decisions, but that is their right, and they will suffer the consequences of doing so. It is not within the authority of bureaucrats to suborn or evade the clearly enunciated will of the People in the performance of their assigned duties, and when they try to do so, they forfeit the lawful authority they have been granted and become instead merely petite tyrants.
© 2009 Altnews
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we are still in the dark on the out come of –when tax papers get rid of stormwater fee in Nov. 09 –we won’t have to pay what we didn’t pay. and now receiving the letter from stormwater they are going to put my unpaid amount on my property taxes for 2110 Do you know the outcome yet–thanks
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Seth and taxpayer8675309. I hadn’t heard anything about this newest proposal until I opened the Broadside blog.
The enterprises pay approximately $40 million per year to the city to defray the costs of city services. If the enterprises were private businesses they would pay taxes for the same purpose. Can anyone tell us how much tax the enterprises would pay if they were private businesses?
How would you react if Mr. Bruce’s ballot measure does not end the stormwater fee and enterprise. He may have outsmarted himself when he wrote his petition language. All of his campaign literature that talks about ending the stormwater fee may be violating the fair campaign practices if the final legal opinion says that it is not an issue on the ballot.
How so? Can you describe your reasoning for this conclusion along with the pertinent statutes?
Mr. Richardson,
Your words are a Symphony.
I wish that you were on the supreme court, at the state or federal level. (Either one would be just fine.)
How can your commentaries become more main stream, especially given the Gazette’s current contraction — if not its all-out impending doom?
(Check into Steve Pope.)
There are so many people (locals, across the state, and nationwide) who are very thirsty for your gifted, and quit expedient, thorough writing on government-abuse topics that are fundamentally relevant to the purpose of the Declaration of Independence.
The government-abuse that we’ve all been observing, I’ll politely characterize as simply OUTRAGEOUS! (I’ve never been more concerned for my Country. And I know I’m not alone.)
Mr. Richardson, from one human to another, please consider this plea:
Please, please do not leave Colorado Springs until the People of Colorado Springs, with your help, put this stormwater enterprise, other enterprises, and illegal hidden charges included in the Peoples’ utility bills, six feet under.
I believe our forefathers, and Mayor Bob Isaac, are turning over in their graves right now.
And I don’t think those great Americans will stop turning in their graves until this RAMPANT government abuse of authority is directly constrained by the People, once again.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Massey
Colorado Springs
719-535-0796
ra.massey@comcast.net
Mr. Massey:
Thank you for your kind words. It is my purpose here to challenge conventional wisdom and highlight the hypocrisies and abuses of government. Government is a necessary evil, and must always be carefully watched and held to account, and constrained within the legitimate boundaries of the public will.
It is my intention to be here for a long time, and to never waver in requiring reason and obedience from our elected representatives.