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Bernie Herpin is a retired member of the United States Air Force. He also served in the United States Navy.  Use of his military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Air Force, Navy, or Department of Defense.

ISSUES

There are many issues facing our City.  Below, I have listed some of these issues and my thoughts on them.  First, though, I firmly believe we have a great City.  This is a wonderful place to live.  We have clean air and water, low crime, and many recreational choices.  In general, our City is well run.  Could some things be done differently?  Of course!  There is no government entity, business, or household that couldn't use some improvement.  Is there waste in City government?  Again, most likely.  In any large organization, there will be some room for cost savings and more careful spending.  Sometimes, though, you have to weigh the costs associated with micromanaging an organization and any savings that may be realized.  As your City Councilmember, I pledge to be a good steward of our tax money, to carefully review each budget, and to ensure that those spending our money are spending it wisely.  I will not, however, try to micromanage our City staff—that is the job of our City Manager and her department managers.  My job will be to oversee and advise those managers while keeping a careful eye on the operations of our City.

bullet Citizen Involvement: As a community activist, I know the importance of access to elected officials. I will always be accessible to our citizens. I would like to be invited to your home owner and club meetings. I intend to participate in town hall meetings. I will promptly respond to phone calls and e-mails. I am a strong supporter of electronic communication. As your representative, it is important that I be aware of your concerns and take them into consideration when making decisions. However, Council decisions cannot be subject to citizen referendums. You will be entrusting me with the responsibility to make decisions on your behalf. I will always strive to do what is in the best interest of our City. I will not be able to please everyone every time. I will not be the kind of representative who wets his finger and sticks it in the air before making a decision. I will approach each decision with an open mind, listening to all sides before making a decision.
 
bullet Water: We have done a very good job in the past to ensure that we will have an adequate supply of water - now and in the future.  We must complete the Southern Delivery System (SDS) to make sure we have access to water rights that belong to us while still being a good neighbor to those who also depend on water from the Arkansas River.  In addition the SDS provides a backup supply to the single point of failure that exists in our current system (pipeline over the mountains from the Otero Pumping Station).
 
bullet Infrastructure: We must have good City streets and safe bridges.  The passage of the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA) by the voters was a good step in developing, improving, and maintaining our transportation infrastructure.  We have seen many road improvements around the city from the PPRTA; like, the Austin Bluffs and Union interchange, the Woodmen and Powers interchange, the Union Blvd improvements, and many others.  I sit on the PPRTA Citizen Advisory Committee, which advises the PPRTA Board and monitors the expenditure of PPRTA funds.
 
bullet Taxes: We can be justifiably proud of the fact that our citizens pay, by far, the lowest per capita tax of any front range City. Our per person property tax revenue is just $47 per year! Compare this to Douglas ($309), Boulder ($256), or Jefferson ($253). Even Pueblo ($187) and Mesa ($157) citizens pay more in property tax than we do. And, when you figure in sales tax, we still only pay a total tax of about $172 per person which is the lowest of all front range counties (Douglas is the highest at $506). And yet, the services we provide are top notch! Given these figures, there can't be too much waste or mismanagement in our City government! I support the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights and believe that your money should always be invested and spent wisely. I also believe the "double counting" of state grants must be fixed. Funds collected by the state are subject to TABOR limits. When state funds are transferred to the City to pay for state mandated programs, they are also counted against our TABOR limit. This double counting unfairly penalizes local governments when it is just a pass through.
 
bullet TABOR Repeal?: Colorado Springs is the only city with its own TABOR. The major difference between our TABOR and the state TABOR is our TABOR states that a city enterprise receive no more than 25% of its funding from government sources or it looses its enterprise status.  Currently, all of our enterprises receive no local tax money; however, for example, the airport does receive federal funding for some items (such as the recent rebuilding of the east runway).  As with the state TABOR, any money collected over the TABOR limit must be refunded (done as a credit on utility bills) or the Council must ask the citizens to let the city keep the excess in an election question.  A citizen committee has recommended the Council put an issue on the April 7, 2009 ballot to completely repeal the city's version of TABOR.

IF the city's TABOR were voted out of the city charter, the city would still have the same limitations under the state TABOR: Cannot collect more tax than the TABOR cap allows, cannot raise taxes without a vote of the people, etc. The major difference would be how grant money would be counted for our city.

ANY tax money collected from sales, property, and use taxes goes to fund city services. We pay the lowest per capita total tax rate of any Front Range city. This is a good thing; however, we do suffer in many ways, most notably in public safety where our police officers are leaving (after we train them) for better paying jobs in the Denver area, for example. We are well below the national average in officer per 1000 population and this results in slower response times and in forcing crime victims to report their crimes on the Internet or by telephone.

The main provision of TABOR is GOOD: asking those who pay taxes if they want to raise taxes. However, there are some flaws in TABOR that should be fixed: the "ratchet" effect and the inability to set aside a portion of our tax money in good years for use in hard economic times. For the city, the requirement our enterprises to count grant money from governmental agencies as tax income needs to be fixed.

Would I support a total repeal of the city TABOR? No. As a fiscal conservative and a responsible citizen, I want low taxes, but realize that it takes taxes to provide the services that our citizens deserve and expect. Colorado Springs is a great place to live, not because we just provide the bare necessities of minimal police, fire, and infrastructure, but because we do have a great park system and community events and recreational programs. If we eliminate the grant counting provision, I think we would be very close to the state TABOR and so, it wouldn’t much matter if we keep the city version as well.  There was talk in Governor Ritter’s (D) State of the State address that he’d like to eliminate TABOR. He can’t do that. TABOR, a Colorado Constitutional amendment, can only be modified by a vote of the people. However, our local TABOR, if modified to allow our city to accept grant money without counting against our TABOR limit, is a good “backstop” to the state TABOR and any tinkering the “tax and spend” Democrat legislators may try to do.

I don’t know what the council is going to do with the committee’s recommendation to completely eliminate the local TABOR rather than the alternate recommendation to just fix the grant problem.

As a former councilmember, if only for one year, I went through a budget cycle at a time when the economy was pretty good (2006 for the 2007 budget). I did not see a lot of "fat" in the budget. Our employees are pretty well paid and that is okay with me since this is a fairly well paid population especially if you work in the defense, aerospace, or computer industry. I did find the city employees as very hard working, dedicated to the city and their jobs, and very knowledgeable and helpful. In many years, they have not had any pay raises and their salaries are at or below the mean for cities our size.

In summary, I believe we have a great city that is facing some tough challenges. Someone said to fire the person who over estimated the budgeted income by 20%. Well, the 2008 budget was approved in 2007. Who could have predicted $4 a gallon gas or the mortgage loan collapse which resulted in a big downturn in housing starts? All of this put pressure on the predicted tax revenue. The city DOES have to live within a budget - a balanced budget - and it is adjusted throughout the year as actual revenue and expenses are compared to budgeted income and expenses.

Is there room for cost cutting and efficiencies? Probably, but we are getting pretty lean and we have already started cutting into the muscle. I think our council has done a good job keeping our city running as well as it is with the level of revenue they have to work with. They make decisions that they feel are in the best interests of the city as a whole and they are not going to please everyone. It is really a thankless job that pays next to nothing for the work expected.
 

bullet Public Safety: The number one function of government is providing for the common defense of its citizens. For a City, this is law enforcement, judiciary, prosecution, and incarceration. Our taxes provide for these necessary functions. If there isn't enough money to hire and train quality police officers and firefighters, our safety will suffer. I am a strong supporter of public safety. As a City Councilmember, I will support the demonstrated and documented needs of our police and fire departments. They establish the need, and councilmembers establish the funding.  Our citizens did step up the the plate with the passage of the Public Safety Sales Tax (PSST) that helps fund our city's public safety needs.  I sit on the PSST Oversight Committee which monitors the PSST spending and ensures that the City keeps to the requirement to maintain the pre-PSST general fund level of spending on public safety.  In hard economic times, this may mean cutting back on nonessential services and programs. That is why you put us in office–to make the tough choices, to prioritize spending. You should expect no less and I will give no less.
 
bullet Parks and Recreation: A quality of life issue, what makes people want to live here, recreational opportunities are a necessary function of government. We must set aside and maintain space and facilities for our citizens to enjoy. We cannot be "all work and no play" even as a government. I support the Trails, Open Space, and Parks (TOPS) program and the many benefits we will see from it.
 
bullet Mass Transportation: I support a viable and useable transit system.  I also support the Front Range Express service.  We need to maintain a transit system that serves those in our community who have no other means of transportation and we need to make it attractive to the "choice" rider so that we can help get cars off the road.
 
bullet Property Rights: Private ownership of property is a fundamental right of Americans. To protect the value of our property, some communities have adopted rules that regulate what we can do on our property. I will never support the taking of private property for non-governmental use and will only support using condemnation in the most extreme situations where public safety is necessary.
 
bullet Second Amendment: Everyone should know where I stand on this issue! I have been in the forefront of the fight to protect our right to keep and bear arms for more than 25 years. This individual right to keep and bear arms for the protection of yourself, your family, and others is the foundation upon which all other rights are built. The Bill of Rights is clear in protecting this right and the Colorado Constitution is even more clear.
 
bullet Growth: Growth is essential to the health of a community. I support planned and managed growth. We must work with the developers to ensure they include open space and make provisions for schools and help with infrastructure needs.  Our development community has been hard hit by the current economic downturn and this has resulted in financial hits to our sales and property taxes and utility rates.  In addition to providing homes and commercial buildings, our developers generously support many charitable activities in our community.  They are not the "bad guys" that many make them out to be.
 
bullet Academy Boulevard:  District 4 has seen many business along Academy move out to Powers Blvd or go out of business.  Academy has been designated an urban renewal area which will help us get businesses back into our area.  A bright spot in all of this is happening at the Citadel Crossing (Academy & Galley) where Lowe's Home Improvement is building a new store.  This anchor should help this area get businesses back in.

Page last updated: 05/29/2009