Wow. I'm really curious to see if they vote to restore these services once they are gone. The biggest trouble with Republican ideology is that they very rarely have to experience the logical consequences of it because American infrastructure is realitively, compared to Haiti for instance, robust. I'm really hoping they suffer.

I predict they won't get the hint. They're belief in no taxes is basically religious; it does not come from a different view of the facts, it comes from a an active dismisal of the facts.

You can see it already. They're complaining that there MUST be a way to give the exact same services while working with a drastically lower budget. Same as Republicans claiming they can magically make everyone have healthcare without touching the deficit. Mathematically impossible, but the practical demonstration of that fact will be dismissed. They'll blame "the government" for their dark, cracked and fire-prone streets, and refuse to acknowledge that taxes are required for services.

The good people of Colorado Springs have been fed a steady diet of anti-government pablum, and think that all this will mean is that a bunch of lazy, overpaid, unionized municipal employees will now get to be as miserable as they are.

It's not surprising that we as a nation are being infantilized. What it surprising is that so many people are so eager to put on the diapers.

I'll be watching this closely. They've already voted down one request for increased taxes to prevent this from happening; maybe the harsh reality will change a few minds. Of course, considering that most people in the Springs are slightly to the right of Adolph Hitler, I'll be surprised if that happens.

They'll probably use this as "proof" that the government can't handle the taxpayers money wisely and want to cut taxes even more.

When they realize what a hell-hole they've created, watch them pick up and migrate to Seattle.

@5 Exactly. I had a conversation (loosely applied term here) with someone who informed me she didn't like paying taxes to schools that produce students with such poor grades. "Why reward them for poor work?"

So I asked her about the ones who had higher scores -- they should be given more money then? Oh no-- according to her, they too shouldn't receive more since they are already doing fine as evidenced by their scores.

No matter what, schools should get less. To her, it made sense. Errrg.......

I liked Colo Spgs when I went to high school there in the early 70s. Doubtful I'd recognize it now, especially in the dark!

Actually, what will probably happen is that they will somehow find a way to mooch off the feds. After all, we can't have the home of the Air Force Academy looking like a third world city.

Conservatives are big on talk, but they can't accept responsibility for their actions. Their mindset depends heavily on being a victim. That way, nothing is ever their fault.

Who said teabaggers have a need for police ? they are all for self-proclaimed militia mobs.

As an escapee of the Springs, I have to admit that this story gives me mixed feelings. There's actually a great arts community in the Springs, including a lively theater scene, and that city has a healthy gay scene, too. It's really two cities--the (relatively) hip, liberal downtown and West side, and the vast sea of suburban fundamental christians. Unfortunately, it's the downtown liberals and the arts that will most be harmed here. Oh, and the poor.

So I don't see this changing for a long, long time.

This place is a shithole. I hate living here. If it weren't for the mountains being so close, it would be unbearable.

I've often thought there should be a Slog "fieldtrip" to the local paper's comment boards. The people on there are so ridiculous it is...ridiculous. And their editorial board preaches the lie of libertarianism. Even after they filed for bankruptcy. You guys should come, it would be fun and an escape from jerking each other off on slog.

TRIPLED property taxes? TRIPLED? as in 3X greater than current? that'd get voted down in Seattle, too.

@ 12, sounds like some hard right asswipe proposed that much of a tax hike as a poison pill.

That said, they have pretty low property taxes down there (I read an average of $1,200 annually) and most could probably swing it.

I suspect what was voted down was a 3x increase in City property taxes, likely only a portion of Total property taxes.

this is going to be fun to watch.
i wonder if emigration will increase.

Fuck Wal-Mart America. What a bunch of self-centered xenophobic Nazis.

What then if some of these lack of city services eventually become privatized?

@18 Trojan horse alert! These services will be "privatized", but it will be the suburban mega-churches that take over schools, parks & arts. They created a void that they can swoop in to fill, proving how much better Jesus is at everything. A clever way to disenfranchise the heretics.

Then the swift process of "purification" will start. Schools will have a ignorance only sex ed policy, parks will host church services, and arts will only mean religious symbolism.

Well you know the evangenitals will just pick up and move to Oklahoma or somewhere else and leave everyone else in the lurch. Don't ever trust a christian.

That article about evangelism in Rolling Stone recounted a Colorado Springs pastor (can't remember which one) declaring several single women in the city as witches. He and his congregation "protested" outside those women's homes, harassing them until they were forced to flee.

Fuck everyone in Colorado Springs with a rusty chainsaw.

My girlfriend lives in the springs, and I spend most every weekend down there with her. It's not a bad city as cities go but as a Boulderite I look on it with a bit of trepidation. I started calling Pike's Peak "Mt. Doom" the first time I saw it.

Getting her to move the hell out of there and up north can't happen fast enough.

@2 had it right - they'll replace the mayor and city council with right-wing hacks, who will either: personally validate that the situation really is that bad and propose tax increases (then they will be replaced by even more extreme right-wing hacks); or they will willy-nilly slash the salaries and benefits of the "overpaid and lazy" city workers leading to crappier services, and more disgruntled citizenry.

It's the perfect tautology/self-fulfilling prophecy. Government is incompetent and terrible and shouldn't be funded. Then when that happens, government is predictably incompetent, terrible, or otherwise unable to fulfill it's functions. So the righties further defund it.

The most important thing is for the rest of CO and the Feds not to bail out Colorado Springs. They made their bed, they can lie in it or fix it. Time to give them what they've been asking for (to be left alone).

Silly Colorado Springs.
They should be
Putting Democratic Policy Proposals Into Action.
Like San Francisco.....

http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-12-16/news/…

Good time for a reminder-- send in your ballots and vote yes for the Schools levy, Propositions 1 and 2! Not a new tax, just an existing one that funds our schools.

Deadline is next Tuesday so vote today!

http://www.schoolsfirstseattle.org/

Am I missing something? Isn't this a Conservative utopia? Shouldn't it be the perfect laboratory to view the "accountability" of the average citizen in which they are responsible for these things (a la "Coburn's healthcare plan)? Not the government, but their neighbors and community?

I think everyone's being a bit cynical. Just think of how red your faces will be when the Springs is a shining, clean, crime free oasis a year from now.

OK. I know it won't happen either.

I predict a libertarian paradise. With only rational self interest to power the street lights there will be manna falling from the sky.

Please keep tracking this story. I want to know what happens.

Please keep tracking this story. I want to know what happens.

@12

You'd have to look at how high they were in the first place and what the final cut out of the average person's income the total tax would look like before off-handedly voting it down. Taxes aren't de facto evil.

Schmacky, I have little faith in these folks doing anything in the way of tracking any story. But I'll try to post a link in the comments to the Morning News as things come up, because I will be tracking this.

"Schmacky, I have little faith in these folks doing anything in the way of tracking any story. But I'll try to post a link in the comments to the Morning News as things come up, because I will be tracking this."
.

@29 Too late. I sent mine in yesterday and voted "No" across the board. My property is overvalued (funny how assessed values went up during the housing bubble but didn't go down after it burst ...) which means I already pay too much in taxes. Assess my property correctly (it should be about $100,000 less than what the government wants to tax me for) and then I'll happily pay a little extra in taxes. But so long as they're going to milk me and then want *even more*, they can suck it.

And yes, I know I can petition to have my property re-assessed for tax purposes. There's no guarantee that they'll assess it lower, and to even successfully bring such a complaint would require me to hire a private assessor so I'd have an actual value to compare against. In other words, it's possible to do but intentionally painful.

As a resident of Colorado Springs (the downtown liberal as Bossman put it) our taxes are a joke. I am not exactly sure where the 3x number comes from, but for me, an owner of an "average" home, I would have paid about $120 more a year. Yeah, $10 a month to keep our public services. I own land in Wisconsin and pay more property taxes on the dirt than I pay on my house in Colorado. It may not be the best place for budget cuts, but this city has to do something to show the community that its vote matters.

@37: The reason your assessed property value is still too high is because your dumbfuck peers are still buying houses for $400,000+. Don't blame the government for the existence of idiot house buyers, and you shouldn't punish the schools for it either. That just makes you look like a douche.

Blame it all on gay marriage! That's the ticket.
Or the pagan witches. It's sure not Jeebus or his follower's fault.

@39: That's not 100% true. Houses were selling in my neighborhood around $350k from the end of 2008 until now, yet my house was valued at $450k for the 2009 tax year (that's the valuation done at the beginning of each year, and in 2009 the bubble had already burst). King County wanted one last grasp at my pocket before they were forced to drastically lower valuation for the 2010 year. Now with the 2010 assessment my house is much more appropriately valued. They may have actually gone too far and undervalued it, but the price will adjust up ~$40-50k every year until it's back in ridiculous territory soon enough.

If I'm punishing schools, so be it. Their levies expired, they're asking to renew them. I'm simply saying that they've taken too much already and not spent it well, and so I don't feel they should get more. There are other options besides increasing property taxes, just like there are other options to funding metro besides increasing car tab taxes. Our local governments just aren't resourceful enough to find those other sources except when they really, really want to (like when they want to build another brand new stadium that the people had routinely voted against ...). For example, people with children in the school district could shoulder much more of the burden than a childless property owner like me. If/when I have my own kids I'll be happy to pick up that burden.

@41

You ARE a douche who doesn't care about his community. You also aren't too bright.

If these levies fail, there will be massive cuts to the school districts.

When the school year is further shortened, I hope some teenager, with nothing better to do, robs your house.

Have a nice day.

@42 That sounds quite a bit like extortion. "Give us money for schools or a teenager will rob your house."

@43 That rationale for school spending has been used for years. Usually in a more positive and elliptical form, though.

"When we have effective schools, children become active and positive members of the community (and so won't *want* to rob your house) and will be able to go out and find fulfilling and well-paid jobs (and so won't *need* to rob your house)."

@41 Municipalities make if difficult to protest your house valuation because it's in their best interest for people to take their assessment and suck it up and pay the bill. If you don't like your assessment, protest your assessment. To say you don't like your assessment but you are unwilling to take the time to file a complaint makes you look like a spoiled lazy whiner. (I'm a spoiled lazy whiner, too, so I know one when I see one.)