Jolon Clark
Never in the 160-year history of the City of Denver has its governmental coffers been so bountifully filled as they are today. The extraordinary rise in property values have brought in untold millions of dollars in real property taxes even if it is breaking the back of small business in the city. [See Chronicle p. 1, July 2018.] Sales tax revenue is also skyrocketing and the myriad taxes on marijuana is a bonanza for the city. As for copious amounts of funds for capital projects the city’s voters approved an almost $10 billion in bonds. The original goal for bond proceeds was much smaller but grew and grew as optimism skyrocketed about the state of the city’s economy.
The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce is gathering signatures for a statewide ballot to increase the state’s sales tax by 2.9 percent or 29 cents per $10 purchase for roads and transportation projects. Since Denver will be the largest contributor to the funding it can be expected to garner the lion’s share of the proceeds for projects it is interested in.
What is a little surprising is that, notwithstanding this mountain of cash, Denver appears to be ignoring various standard expenditures. One would perhaps not be shocked to find out, according to City Councilman Jolon Clark, that Denver Parks and Recreation has a $127 million deferred maintenance backlog. Mayor Hancock and the developers who own him see open space and parks as future apartment house and affordability sites. Why bother to maintain them when in the natural course of business in Denver they will be cemented over, turned into drainage ponds and/or monetized as concert venues and the like.
Nonetheless, Councilman Clark has proposed, and the City Council approved by a 12 to 1 margin, a dedicated parks sales tax of 0.25 percent or 2.5 cents per $10 purchase for park maintenance and acquisition of new or replacement parks. That would produce approximately $46 million next year. Given how fast the City Council is destroying parks and open space in the city, the $46 million would appear modest. The only person voting no was Albus Brooks who instead wants to turn all of the city’s sidewalks into runways for some reason known only to the mayor’s developer friends who want to make him the next mayor of Denver after Hancock retires in 2022.
Clark has noted that the remaining green space in the city “has become too crowded.” A good point since Denver has gone from one of the leading American cities in parks and open space per capita to one of the worst in only a couple of decades.
Kendra Black
This caused Councilwoman Kendra Black, affectionately known as “the dumbest person in America with a master’s degree,” to declare, “There’s definitely a need for this.”
It was left to Councilman Kevin Flynn to point out that what will happen is that the city will simply cut back park maintenance to almost nothing and let the dedicated park fund pay for it all. In effect the dedicated parks tax will become just another feeder to the general fund. Others have noted the Mayor, and his cronies, will use the fund to purchase virtually worthless land that no one wants, even the scummiest developers, from the highly connected. That inescapable logic caused Councilman Flynn to propose a successful amendment that the Council hold public hearings and take votes on five-year plans for the spending of the money. This way the crooks who run the city will have to grease not only the mayor but also individual councilmembers.
Others are gathering signatures for dedicated sales taxes for a myriad other good causes including, but not limited to, mental health and substance abuse treatment; college scholarships; and healthy food programs.
We say yes to all the sales tax initiative that make the ballot in Denver. All the money will eventually end up in the back pockets of CRL Associates, Norm of Arabia, the mayor’s favorite developers and other politically connected individuals. But the public does not appear to appreciate the fact that the mayor spends all his time working out and chasing skirts while the City Council does virtually nothing. Shouldn’t the people who run the city and do all the work be handsomely rewarded for their endeavors? We say yes and thus the voters must approve sales tax hikes for one and all. We are confident, based on past performance, that the Denver voters will do the right thing and vote yes on any and all tax hikes that make the ballot, no matter the purported purpose.
— Editorial Board