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Why doesn't anything ever get decided in Colorado?
I once naively thought that Denver was going to build a new airport, come hell or high water, but now an election is scheduled to decide that issue. In 1972, we voted against holding Winter Olympics in Colorado, and now we discover that the beast is not dead, but merely slumbering, apt to emerge from hibernation any day.
Two Forks was vetoed by Gov. John Vanderhoof 15 years ago, and it's still on the public agenda. Voters thought they were eliminating W-470 last fall by a 4-1 margin, but then the people who were promoting it announce that according to their post-election surveys (one can't say post-mortem surveys, because no scheme ever truly dies in Colorado), the voters weren't really against the highway, they just had problems with the financing. Of course, the polling was rigged so that there was no way to say that one opposed the highway.
The public speaks, and nobody listens. If what we want is different from what our elected and appointed leaders want, then our opinions are not binding or even meaningful.
I've noticed this first-hand recently. Ever since Climax Molybdenum shut down, the local school district has been losing enrollment. In 1980, there were about 1,450 students here, with 84 teachers and seven administrators. In 1983, as enrollment dropped, so did faculty. Now there are 1,200 students, 79 teachers -- and still, of course, seven administrators.
But times are still tough for the school district, which isn't faring all that well under the new school finance law. The school board tried for a property tax increase last fall, with a vague threat that some services would have to be cut if voters didn't go along with the increase.
Without any specific information to justify a tax
increase, it's no wonder that local voters turned down the
added mill levy in November. So the school board and
administration began conducting hearings and taking surveys
to get public input
as to what should be cut.
There were a lot of suggestions. But everyone who bothered to fill out a survey or speak at a meeting said one thing -- if the district was going to cut staff, then administrative positions should go before it eliminates any classroom teaching positions.
So last week, when the school board announces what it intends to do, guess what? No, you don't need to guess. Given how things are done in Colorado, it was a foregone conclusion. But I'll tell you anyway.
Even though there was not one shred of public input that
said keep all the administrators and get rid of some
teachers,
the board announced that it would keep all
seven administrators, but planned to eliminate four
teaching positions.
So much for public input. Granted, there's an election in May where four school board seats are up, but how much difference will that make? Did voting against hosting the Winter Olympics once mean anything? Did W-470 vanish just because the public turned it down?
Denver's airport election could be a good thing. Both sides should have to make their cases to the public. For once and for all, we should be able to find out whether expanding Stapleton onto Rocky Mountain Arsenal is a good idea or a bad one, whether the new site is more or less likely to suffer weather delays, etc.
The presumed virtue of an election is that all these relevant factors will be brought before the public, and that once and for all, a decision will be made, one way or the other.
Here's my safe prediction. If the new airport fails, Mayor Peña, Gov. Romer and the other advocates will say that the public was misinformed, and that since it won't be directly financed with tax money, there's a way to go ahead with something they view as utterly necessary. If it passes, the opponents will go to court and fight the new airport with writs, depositions, hearings and injunctions.
Even if there was an election and the public spoke, in neither case will the issue be decided. After all, this is Colorado, the state of permanent indecision.
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