The debate on Falcon incorporation should include these 12 other flaws in the proposal.1. The $70 million annual RTA road tax is paid on retail sales in the unincorporated county and named cities only. A new City of Falcon (COF) is in neither category. RTA tax funds are spent in member areas only. What happens to Curtis Road and pending RTA road projects? COF cannot repeal the RTA tax now collected in Falcon. Even if it could, most retail purchases are still in Colorado Springs, which has the RTA tax. Will COF citizens continue to pay the 1 percent RTA sales tax, but now get no local road benefits?2. Future “taxes” require vote approval, but “fees” do not. To address miscalculations, or just COF’s desire for more money; fees, fines, permits and licenses can be raised without an election. The same is true for the franchise ìchargeî to be added to your utility bills. New fees for every regulation and involuntary “service” imaginable could come. Don’t believe me? Look at the Colorado Springs street-light tax and storm-water tax, both mislabeled as fees to evade voter approval required under TABOR.3. One wrong land-use decision can subject COF to millions in potential liability. Even if COF wins every time, it won’t recover its attorney fees. If COF loses, it pays damages, which, in civil rights, cases include attorney fees. Where would that money come from? Cities are initially self-insured and have big bucks set aside to pay claims; COF does not. COF will also pay large legal bills just to draft its land-use code. COF won’t just copy the county’s 600-plus pages (in only one of many codes, manuals, etc.) because one incorporation goal is to reject county policies.4. You will still pay ALL county taxes; you just won’t get all the services. You will pay TWICE for roads, law enforcement, local courts, etc. COF backers use fear of big city government to propose more city government! Do you want another layer of costly and intrusive government control over your life? COF backers also ASSUME the county will agree to provide road and sheriff services. As your county commissioner, I know both departments complain now that they lack vehicles and staff. Would they take on a new responsibility, diverting from their existing duties, just to bail out someone’s municipal pipe dream? No way! I would oppose such contracts and predict other commissioners would also. COF fans say commissioners show such bad land use judgment (and my colleagues do). Yet COF depends on that same board for basic services!5. Where is COFís proposed budget? Are there unbudgeted items, like animal control? (Unhappy with the sheriff’s handling of recent animal abuse cases? Will you be happier if he handles such cases by COF contract?) How many buildings will fulfill all municipal desires? The only certainty is that when COF borrows money on your credit, as it will, the debt will be a lien on your home that must be paid back, even if the city fails and incorporation is undone (at even greater expense).6. Little mention is made of the new 1.6 percent sales and use tax. Buy a $30,000 car, even in Colorado Springs, and you will pay $480 MORE tax to COF. Local businesses will also lose their competitive tax advantage, as their customers will pay more.7. State law provides that COF taxpayers will repay private incorporation expenses. One attorney billed (bilked?) the new city of Centennial for $343,000 for handling that incorporation. Do you want your higher taxes paying proponents’ costs and legal fees? No.8. The lamest argument by the tax pushers is that incorporation prevents annexation by Colorado Springs. By law, the Springs cannot annex involuntarily unless it totally surrounds Falcon. Nor does the Springs want to provide services to new residential areas, as the added property tax base won’t cover their costs. So saving you from a slim risk of someday paying the 2.5 percent Springs sales tax on local non-grocery purchases means forming another city with a 1.6 percent higher tax (to start).9. COF fans say county and city leaders are too pro-developer. With one exception (me), that is true, but why would COF be different? Will all your unknown future trustees reject forever any developer campaign contributions, free dinners, trips, etc? Will they always have greater moral purity? I reject all those blandishments now. I have publicly opposed all new subdivisions because of the taxpayer-subsidized financial and social impacts that growth has on you, but I stand alone in both those actions.10. Centennial voters were promised a 1.5 percent tax cap. A few years later, that city forced a 2.5 percent rate, a 2/3rds increase. The precise legal term for that coerced increase is “con job.”11. Will COF take over county-maintained roads, Drake Lake and other county land? Over my objection, commissioners voted on May 7 to intervene in the incorporation court case to find out. COF backers have the burden of proof to describe in detail their dream city. Have you even seen COFís proposed budget? No. 12. Didnít you move to Falcon to AVOID city controls? ìIf it ainít broke, donít fix it.î Black Forest voters just rejected incorporation by 71 percent to 29 percent. Tell everyone you know to vote “NO!” on May 29 at the fire station. Donate time and money to bury this impulsive, ill-conceived idea. Visit www.NoFalconCO.org or phone 495-1500. Do it today.County Commissioner Douglas Brucetaxcutter@msn.com
