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There aren't many benefits to living in rural Colorado, but it is true that your enemies are easy to find. Most of them inhabit the Republican caucuses of the Colorado General Assembly.
Last week the GOP came up with a budget that was supposed to solve Colorado's fiscal problems. If you live between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, that budget demonstrates just what a privilege it is to live in Colorado. But if you live anywhere else, you're a victim.
There are two major functions of state government: education and highways.
Just how the state helps local school districts is hideously complicated. But in theory, if a locale is rich, it can raise considerable sums from local property taxes, so it doesn't need much state aid for its schools. If it's poor, then the state provides such help as is necessary.
Next year, a state-ordered revaluation of real estate will take place, going from 1977 values to 1985 values. Values in rural areas have dropped, while those along the Front Range have gone up. So poor rural districts would get more state aid, while richer urban and suburban districts would get less.
That didn't sit well with our legislature. They're coming up with $30 million to help rich districts keep their property taxes down.
For more than a decade, the legislature has been under pressure from the courts to do something for the poor rural districts, where no matter how high the mill levy is set, there isn't going to be enough local money for competitive schools.
But has the legislature done anything for people with the misfortune to have children in poor rural areas? Of course not. Does the legislature hasten to assist people in wealthy regions? Of course.
Another delight in the Republican budget proposal is its transfer of money out of the highway fund. Since highways are the only way we have of getting around out here, we're in trouble. So are such industries as we have; their transportation time and expense will rise as the roads deteriorate.
But if you travel mostly on city streets, you can proceed smoothly, because the tax package allows for special excise taxes just for your benefit. And you'll probably see more benefits in the future, because the legislature plans to give urban areas more say on the State Highway Commission.
You can dismiss this as some country bumpkin complaining that his special interests are being ignored, but I'd like to think there's more to these issues than that.
Very few people settle in Colorado, or indeed even visit Colorado to spend money, just on account of the civic attractions of Denver or Fort Collins. It is the rural areas -- vast prairies, soaring peaks, verdant valleys -- that are the major lure to both tourists and relocating industries that want a quality lifestyle for their employees.
If you intend to enjoy the fishing, camping, hiking, skiing, and all the other stuff, you must venture into rural Colorado.
You must risk your life driving over narrow, twisting, pot-holed roads that your legislature does not think are worth maintaining.
Should you get in an accident, the ambulance attendant who first arrives, who holds your life in your hands, might well be some local kid that your legislature didn't think was worth educating. Her brother, another hick not worth your money to educate, might be the guy who fixes your car if you develop problems while trying to enjoy Colorado.
Of course, rural kids who somehow develop marketable skills usually don't stay around. Rural residents and visitors get stuck with the incompetent ones; the competent individuals move to the Front Range, where there are opportunities to earn more than minimum wage. And the Brown Cloud gets browner while the traffic jams lengthen, problems that would be mitigated if there was any chance of making anything of oneself away from the Front Range.
The legislature's latest effort victimizes rural Colorado for some short-term benefits to the metro areas. In the long term, it will just make Colorado a worse a place to live, visit or do business.
When this session started, the GOP leaders said economic development was their primary goal. We can be grateful, I suppose, that they didn't make peace their goal, or we'd all be blown to smithereens by now.
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