Vote for Joan Peck
I support the re-election of Joan Peck for Longmont City Council, At-Large.
Joan has been a tireless advocate for preserving our natural environment and for protecting wildlife within the city. She has stood up for affordable housing and compassionate engagement with the homeless population. She has fought for bringing FasTracks to Longmont and has worked to promote multimodal transportation. She has been a leader in the fight to bring air quality monitoring to Longmont, which will soon be implemented. In all areas of city policy, Joan has worked to achieve a sustainable future for all citizens. Her candidacy has been endorsed by the Colorado Sierra Club, as well as numerous state and county officials.
Joan Peck seems to be unpopular with a small clique of development boosters and the “old guard” who act as if they own the town. Among these are some of the same people who publicly supported fracking in Longmont as a great “business-friendly” idea back in 2012. At that time Joan was leading the petition drive to ban fracking. Their opposition is a badge of honor and a sign that Joan is doing an effective job.
If you are a Longmont citizen who wants a clean, sustainable and just future for our town, please join me in voting for Joan Peck.
Chris Boardman/Longmont
What’s if Prop CC passes?
If Prop CC passes it would gut the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR).
But the language of Prop CC is misleading and does not clearly state this intention:
“Without raising taxes and to better fund public schools, higher education, and roads, bridges, and transit, within a balanced budget, may the state keep and spend all the revenue it annually collects after June 30, 2019, but is not currently allowed to keep and spend under Colorado law, with an annual audit to show how the retained revenues are spent?”
Politicians, today, can raise taxes, but with TABOR, they have to ask us first. If government revenues increase at a rate faster than population growth plus inflation, the excess must be returned to taxpayers. This would end if Prop CC passes.
Losing TABOR would cost Colorado taxpayers billions of dollars in perpetuity. It would forfeit all our future TABOR refunds, and forfeit your future consent to tax increases.
We can learn quite a bit from the past. Ref C, passed in 2004, allowed for a five-year time-out from TABOR spending limits. The revenue was to be used, among other things, for education, transportation and health care. But no one knows how the money from Ref C was spent. Prop CC is asking for a forever time-out.
Colorado’s economy is currently ranked No. 1 largely because of TABOR, which creates a stable tax environment that attracts business and provides tax refunds to Coloradans. Do we want to lose this excellent status and allow the Colorado economy to become more like California or Illinois?
If you want to keep your hard-earned money, your right to refunds, and your future consent to tax increases, vote no on Proposition CC.
Diane Borden/Golden
