Colorado Rep. Marsha Looper hosted a town hall meeting March 28 and invited El Paso County Commissioner Amy Lathen, state Rep. Mark Waller and U.S. Congressman Doug Lamborn to share the stage.Each discussed his or her thoughts on issues affecting the county, state and nation.Doug LambornLamborn talked about federal spending. “The trouble with this spending is that we have to go to other countries and to creditors and investors here in this country, and ask them to put up the dollars to buy bonds,” he said.The United States may have to pay higher interest rates to attract investors to buy its bonds, which is one of the things that will lead to inflation, he added.Lamborn proposed eliminating funding of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as ways of reducing government spending.”When times are tight, I believe the government should tighten its belt,” he said.Lamborn opposes cap and trade. “It will increase the cost of electricity and other forms of energy in the hopes that that money can be spent on projects that will reduce global warming,” he said.”In my opinion, we’ve not yet established a clear-cut connection between man-made activity and global warming, and yet they want to invest many trillions of dollars.”Mark WallerWaller cited the elimination of the business personal property tax as a way to reduce unemployment.”Taxes on businesses are outrageous in Colorado,” he said.Waller said the Colorado State House passed a bill to give businesses coming to Colorado a reduction of 2.3 percent in their business tax, but the bill still has to pass the Senate.Marsha Looper“Right now, it’s against the law to put in a rain barrel and capture rain or snowmelt,” Looper said, adding that it’s been against the law for 120 years because of a constitutional provision called “prior appropriation.””The senior water holders believe every raindrop and every snowflake that falls out of the sky belongs to them someplace in a river or stream system in Colorado,” Looper said. “We know areas in our county have no connection to a stream system.”Looper has been working on legislation to legalize the collection of rain and snowmelt. “I believe that come May 7, we’ll be able to start capturing rain and snowmelt – a major change to Colorado law,” she said.To put in a water collection system, such as a rain barrel or a cistern, people will have to make an application with the Colorado State Engineer’s Office.”They’re going to charge a couple of bucks to process that application,” Looper said. “They’ll look at where the property is, and if there is no hydrologic connection to any stream system, which applies to most of us out here, they’ll grant the application.”We know our groundwater is being pumped to depletion. With rainwater harvesting and snowmelt capture, we’ll be able to relieve some of the pressure on our aquifers.”Amy LathenLathen said she’s excited about state Rep. Amy Stephens’ bill requiring a fiscal impact statement for every bill affecting local government.”I’m interested in what I can do to say no to unfunded mandates,” Lathen said.Lathen gave the example of a federal mandate requiring the county to change out every road sign to contain higher reflectivity paint.”This is a $3 million project,” she said. “We’ve spread this project out over six years because we don’t have the people or the resources to do it. Those are dollars we can’t spend on our roads.”
