Last week's Fort Collins Now column:
“The credibility of our whole process is at stake.”
And
with that, Mayor Doug Hutchinson last Tuesday announced what he
described as the toughest decision of his tenure in office: He voted
against the proposed “health and safety” tax.
It was the right vote.
Over
the past two weeks, a straightforward tax proposal to fund enhanced
police and fire services turned into a contentious political issue.
Somehow, someone tacked on an additional $1.1 million in taxes
earmarked for “creating and promoting a healthy and sustainable
environment.” There was no sunset provision. It was a $1.1 million
blank check to unspecified environmental programs.
The Mayor really did make the tough, correct decision, and there was an ensuing chorus of accolades from the local press for the move.
Coloradoan editorial last week:
Fort Collins City Council made the right
decision Tuesday not to place an ill-conceived public safety/public
health tax proposal on the November ballot.
While that decision
may have been difficult, the next step in assuring that concerns
surrounding public safety funding are fully vetted could be even more
challenging. In fact, talk about placing a public safety tax on the
2008 ballot is wholly premature without a meaningful and transparent
discussion about the status of the city's budget.
The "Notebook" from Fort Collins Now:
It’s telling that Ohlson was the driving force
behind earmarking $1.1 million per year for matters that require a
great deal of linguistic acrobatics to fall under the definition of
“public safety.” When he told members of a council committee working on
the ballot language that he wouldn’t support a tax proposal unless it
involved funding for such vague “safety issues” as mitigating train
noise, it must have been assumed that Manvel, Roy and Poppaw would have
followed suit or such trivia would never have appeared in the proposal.
So
what is this? Ohlson testing the waters and seeing how much sway he
holds over City Council? I hope this exercise in muscle-flexing was
worth it, because the only thing that was truly accomplished in finding
out was to delay the opportunity to fully finance the police department
for at least a year.
