“I pushed for that work session on their behalf, because they weren’t getting anywhere. As commissioner, I argued that, look, these guys have legitimate concerns…”
Category: Opinion/Letters
EDITORIAL: More Thoughts About the ‘Gun Show Loophole’
Not many of us are laughing about guns, at this particular time in our nation’s history…
EDITORIAL: A Brief History of an Adversarial Relationship, Part Two
The very act of bringing these petitions to the BOCC and requesting their placement on the ballot was itself a challenge to the status quo…
EDITORIAL: A Brief History of an Adversarial Relationship, Part One
“Now the [2014] elections have passed, and you guys had an opportunity to do something with [the petitions] — either address them yourselves or put them on the ballot; you chose to do nothing…
EDITORIAL: Telling Tales About TABOR, Part Five
Despite long-standing complaints about potholes, crumbling roads, and unfixed highways, US states spent as much building new roads as repairing old ones…
EDITORIAL: Telling Tales About TABOR, Part Four
The BOCC went ahead and borrowed the money for their new jail anyway, without voter approval, using a clever financial device well-loved by the banking industry…
EDITORIAL: Telling Tales About TABOR, Part Three
We also noted that, in 2016-2017, more than 69 percent of Colorado state revenue was exempt from TABOR limitations…
EDITORIAL: Building Glass Castles in the Sand, Part Two
Cardboard is now selling for $25 a ton. “Prices for OCC [cardboard] today are so low that in many cases the material is not even covering the ever-rising cost of freight to the mill…”
EDITORIAL: Building Glass Castles in the Sand, Part One
“Comparing $111,000 to the cost of constructing a new landfill, we’ll be saving money in the long run, by buying space that we’re not filling up….”
EDITORIAL: Telling Tales About TABOR, Part Two
Ms. Hedges wants us to repeal TABOR, and she apparently also wants us to believe that TABOR is to blame for the condition of our state highways and county roads…
EDITORIAL: Wings Over Pagosa, Part Five
Phone calls to these mothers and grandmothers revealed that only four of the seven will still be operating as licensed daycare providers in 2020…
EDITORIAL: Wings Over Pagosa, Part Two
Even with a rent-free building, the sliding tuition scale at Seeds of Learning leaves the non-profit organization with an annual operating deficit of about $200,000…
EDITORIAL: Wings Over Pagosa, Part One
“We’re not going to be a daycare center; we’re going to be an educational center…”
EDITORIAL: Town, County Discuss Impacts from Vacation Rentals, Part Three
Is Archuleta County experiencing some serious economic problems? It’s pretty well recognized that we are…
EDITORIAL: Town, County Discuss Impacts from Vacation Rentals, Part Two
“There’s movement to classify short-term rental property as ‘commercial’ for property tax purposes. The [Colorado Assessors Association] is kind of pushing that….”
EDITORIAL: Town, County Discuss Impacts from Vacation Rentals, Part One
If Ms. DeMarco and her fellow elected officials really want to consider ‘capping’ the total number of STRs at 20 percent of the available homes… well, that bus may have already left the station…
EDITORIAL: The Wonders of Economic Development, Part Eight
When a government overextends itself — as both the Town and County governments have done, here in Archuleta County — the obvious ‘fix’ is to promote economic growth…
EDITORIAL: The Wonders of Economic Development, Part Seven
“One thing I want the public to know is, we don’t want to give incentives to duplicate an existing business — somebody who has already been paying their taxes, and is a known entity…”
EDITORIAL: An Uncomfortable Dispatch Center Meeting
“When we did this 10 years ago, it cost us $500,000 to open the center that we have right now,” he said. “So, we’re not talking about something that’s cheap…”