The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights creates a ratchet-down effect, although TABOR supporters like to deny it. It’s pretty well explained if you click here. Here’s how the ratchet works:

In the current recession, sales tax revenues are way down. Eventually, revenues will bounce back, but the recession is creating a new TABOR baseline (you could refer to it as a basement if you like). It means that although the city will receive double-digit increases in sales tax revenue eventually, it won’t be able to keep a good share of the money. TABOR limits the city to keeping an increase that is tied to a formula including inflation plus population growth.

The TABOR ratchet means the size of government constantly must shrink, relative to the overall economy.

Many of the same people who love TABOR insist government should operate more like a business. But no business would consider doing what TABOR does. It hards times, businesses cut back on training, travel, advertising and infrastructure costs. So does government. But when the good times return, businesses reinvest in training, infrastructure and the rest. To compete, they have to. TABOR restrains government from doing the same sort of reinvestment. TABOR forbids government behaving the way a business would.

Because TABOR has hamstrung Colorado Springs so badly, the Sustainable Funding Committee appointed by city hall will forward a list of revenue-raising ideas to the City Council. Many of the ideas are contained in a new report. It’s 169 pages, so if you want to down load the whole thing, have patience.

Will Colorado Springs voters approve some kind of tax increase in November? Maybe. Will there be a list of fee increases coming? Almost certainly.

In May it was reported that the Holyoke RE- 1 J School District recorded no student tested positive for drug use after 203 tests were conducted through the school year.

What does that mean? Well, Holyoke Police Chief Philip Biersdorfer said his department has made arrests for meth and marijuana involving teenagers in Holyoke this year. Had they been tested by the school’s random drug testing program? We can’t tell, because the information about individual students being tested is, naturally, kept secret. But it’s obvious that there are teens doing drugs in the small town, regardless of what the school’s drug test results say.

There is nothing surprising about this, but it is notable because Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 is considering a random drug-testing program for kids involved in extra-curricular activities. The testing would be limited to those kids because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling which states that random drug testing cannot be linked with academics. That, acknowledged D-12 Superintendent Walt Cooper, creates a gray area, because some activities traditionally seen as extra-curricular are not, exactly. For instance, drama students or music students whose grades are tied to their participation in stage plays or concerts might not have to participate in a random drugs testing program, depending on which court is reviewing the case. And just about everyone at D-12 assumes that if there is a drug-testing program, eventually there will be a lawsuit.

Here are some frequently asked questions concerning the issue, as listed on D-12’s web site: Q: Why implement a random drug testing policy in the Cheyenne Mountain
School District?
A: The Board of Education takes the safety and welfare of our students very
seriously. And, we know from talking with students, parents, and law
enforcement officials that some students at Cheyenne Mountain High School, like
all other high schools, are continuing to make poor choices regarding the use of
alcohol and illegal drugs. In fact, during the 2008-2009 school year, 34 CMHS
students were either suspended or expelled for drug or alcohol use,1 and
conversations this spring with groups of CMHS seniors indicated prevalent use of
marijuana and alcohol among large groups of students outside of school and on
weekends. It is our hope that in addition to parental support and increased alcohol
and drug education, the presence of a random drug testing policy will encourage
students to make better choices regarding drugs, and may provide a strong reason
for our students who want to avoid peer pressure and say “no” to do so.
Q: Why only test students in activities and athletics…why not test all
students?
A: The Supreme Court has ruled that randomly testing all students in a public school
is unconstitutional because it potentially violates their rights to a free public
education. The Court also ruled, however, that students who choose to participate
in activities that are a privilege, and not a right, can be subject to such a
program. While we believe that it would be best if all students could be included
in a random testing program, it simply isn’t allowable by law.

The American Civil Liberties Union has a list of appellate cases involving drug testing.

The numbers on this graph reflect percentages of the total number of marriage licenses issued in El Paso County since 2005. Thus, you can see that marriage licenses for religious ceremonies accounted for 48 percent of the total in 2005 and only 36 percent of the total so far this year. Similarly, civil ceremonies conducted by a judge have dropped off gradually during the same time. The “self-solemnizing” variety, in which husband and wife merely fill out paperwork after showing their I.D.s, has grown steadily and pretty dramatically since 2005. So far this year in the county, almost half of the marriage licenses are the self-solemnizing kind.

This is hardly just a local phenomenon.  In  Scotland, two-thirds of all marriages are performed civilly now, and religious ceremonies are decidedly a minority of the total.What does all this mean? It’s debatable. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re less religioius; only that organized religions have less to do with weddings than they once did. In El Paso County, the number of self-solemnizing marriages has increased dramatically in the last two years, and that could be related to the poor economy. Fewer people can afford big ceremonies. That doesn’t mean they are not religious. We must be careful about what we read into the numbers.

Often, the best antidote for fear is education. If we kill dozens of coyotes in Colorado Springs, more coyotes will simply move in. That’s because killing a coyote does nothing to alter the habitat in the city, to which the coyote is well-adapted. If the habitat is inviting, they will come. How do we invite them? Sometimes we leave food out for them in the form of pet food left outside on a deck or in a back yard. We make trash cans accessible for them. Our leash laws, obeyed by most people, keep large dogs off of the streets, and generally, coyotes don’t like big dogs around.

Local Division of Wildlife officers say there hasn’t been an attack on a human by a coyote in years, although such attacks have been documented elsewhere. In California in 2008 there were  quite a few coyote incidents, although not one has resulted in a really serious injury. A day-long meeting on coyotes in the Denver area earlier this year revealed that whether they mean to or not, humans do a number of things to attract coyotes.

For film clip of coyotes and some advice on the do’s and don’ts, click here.

As Joni Mitchell famously sang:

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

That’s what almost happened in Garden of the Gods in 1987. Part of the plan for a huge, shiny new visitors center in the middle of Garden of the Gods called for a 350-car parking lot. Almost anyone familiar with the4 place can tell you that autmobiles are the thing that most threatens the ambience at the Garden. So it’s obvious that the last thing the place needs is more paved surface. Well, it wasn’t obvious in 1987, when the parks department put a request for proposal. It invited developers to consider a new amphitheater at the Garden, too.

When the pubic heard about all of this in an article published in the Gazette in January 1987, citizens went ballistic. Very soon, plans for the re-development of Garden of the Gods were shelved, never to be opened again. Richard Beidleman led the effort to derail the development plans, but that transformed into a comprehensive planning effort that involved hundreds of people across the community. Ultimately, instead of more development, the community opted for less. Structures were removed and the road between the so-called Gateway Rocks was closed.

We love Garden of the Gods. The trick is not to love it to death. Beidleman knew that a long time ago. He and others worked hard to buffer the Garden from development. Part of those efforts results in Rock Ledge Ranch, which today is next to the Garden and provides a great community meeting place.

Beidleman’s passion for biology also took him south of Colorado Springs to a place called Aiken Canyon, which is a rare collision of ecosystems.  Thanks to Beidleman’s urging, the Nature Conservany preserved the area with the help of a community fundraising campaign.

Aw, we like ya, Manitou. Yer pretty dang cool most of the time. Like Santa Fe, your parking problems have begun to gum things up a bit. Just up the road, Boulder has problems with parking, too.

The idea of turning the Barr Trail parking lot into a golden goose obviously wasn’t a very good one. Maybe when you go back to the drawing board, you’ll come up with a user-pay solution, instead of a solution that could be described as “Barr Trail users paying for everyone else.”

Beaver Creek
Wilderness Study Area

This marvelous wildlife habitat makes up the Beaver Creek Wilderness Study Area. Administered by the BLM, the WSA comprises 27,020 acres just west of Colorado Springs. With elevations ranging from 6,000 to 10,000 feet, the plant ecology rivals the wildlife. In the south, rolling hills hold a semi-arid pinon-juniper ecosystem. Cactus and yucca thrive here. The land rises moving north. On the slopes of the rugged peaks, engelmann spruce, limber pine, and douglas fir take over. And in the subalpine heights, ancient bristlecone pines have endured for centuries.

For a map, click here.

The Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition has been urging the additions of many wilderness areas for a long time. Among them is the Beaver Creek area. The Bureau of Land Management has long recommended adding 25,000 acres in the wild Beaver Creek area; the environmentalists want a 38,000-acre parcel. As John Stansfield of Sierra Club says, only the south side of Pikes Peak remains undeveloped. But it is quite a beautiful area. Colorado Springs Utilities keeps a 30,000-acre piece off-limits, protecting its watershed. But many other cities have long-since opened their watersheds to recreation and Colorado Springs still could open the area to light recreation, and a plan is being discussed.

For years, the Ring the Peak effort has slowly been connecting a trail system to circle Pikes Peak. An important part of that network would be on the South Slope. Just as the city has been slow to open its closed lands, it is far behind other cities in marketing itself as an outdoor adventure paradise. Mostly, the city tourism gurus market attractions that can be accessed with motor vehicles, including the Pikes Peak Highway.

In December 2006, Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera questioned Councilman Tom Gallagher’s ethics when Gallagher suggested studying an alternative route for a water pipeline backed by developers he had worked for. Nothing much came of it because a strong majority of the council supported a pipeline route that had been planned for years. Gallagher responded to the mayor in an op-ed piece for The Gazette.

Given that history it’s no surprise Gallagher now is saying the mayor should have disclosed his relationship with Marshall to the rest of the council members. Whatever Gallagher’s motives for saying that, he’s right.

In today’s municipal climate, it’s interesting that Rivera so steadfastly denies any conflict of interest, because less than three years ago he was breathing fire about ethics and his perception that Gallagher had a conflict.  By voting in favor of developer Ray Marshall’s bid in the USOC deal, Rivera was helping to pave the way for a person who is not only his friend, but a man with whom he had a broker-investor relationship for almost three years; a relationship that ended only three months before Marshall was awarded the bid.

Rivera says there was no quid pro quo. Of course, he made brokerage fees as vice president for UBS because his name appeared as broker on three accounts he managed for Marshall during a 34-month period. How much was in the accounts and how much Rivera was paid for his services? We don’t know.

Newspaper readers and television viewers have been bombarded with gloomy numbers from the economy and often, the stories include the faces of those who are affected. One trip to the Marian House soup kitchen will bring much into focus for those who may feel a bit numbed, even detached from the bleak economic news.

Just this week, The Gazette has reported a record number of food stamps being issued to more than 47,000 clients in  El Paso County. In Thursday’s paper it was reported that the number of homeless persons has increased. To learn more about the Marian House programs click here.

Manitou Springs has a right, even a responsibility, to charge for parking at the base of Barr Trail.  Using the parking lot as a cash cow to subsidize other city functions while the town is unwilling to charge for parking on its own main street seems to be grasping a bit.

Turnover at the lot is high because those who hike up the Manitou Incline, as well as thos e who hike up Barr Trail, park at the lot. There are no statistics kept there, but 30-35 cars steadily occupy the lot throughout every day during prime hiking season. People use the Incline into the evening hours all the time. During colder seasons, use of the lot is more sporadic, but it can be jammed if there is unseasonable warm weather in, say, February or March.

Under the city’s current plan, a group of hikers could park at the lot and pay $5 and stay at Barr Camp for a week. A single person taking 90 minutes to go up the Incline and come down would pay the same $5.

Colorado Springs has had a parking enterpise for years. It operates parking garages and collects money from meters.