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Scattered across our state are about 50 water
conservancy districts,
each with a board of
directors.
Conservancy districts were established to manage water projects. Some operate gargantuan enterprises with several storage reservoirs and expensive diversion tunnels under the Continental Divide. Northern Colorado, with the Colorado-Big Thompson project, is one of the major players, and Southeastern, with the Frying Pan-Arkansas, is another.
Others are like the Upper South Platte in Park County. The first and last time I heard of it was in 1985, when one of the directors told me that her district didn't do anything except collect property taxes.
That's something all the water conservancy districts, large or small, active or inactive, have in common. My property tax bill this year shows .738 mill for the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, and .398 for the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. (Some of us are blessed with two districts.)
More than two centuries ago, our political forebears
dumped tea in Boston Harbor, and then waged war against the
most powerful empire on earth, all because they were
opposed to taxation without representation.
Taxation without representation
is a perfect
description of the current situation with water conservancy
districts. Their directors -- people who spend your money
and act in your name -- are not elected. Instead, they are
appointed by district judges.
If a constitutional scholar spent more than 20 seconds
examining this system, he'd be hauled away in a
straitjacket as he ranted about violations of the
separation of powers
doctrine. The judicial branch
appoints people to exercise executive roles (administering
a water system) and legislative functions (levying
taxes).
Senate Bill 144, introduced by Sen. Dennis Gallagher, attempts to correct these problems by having water boards elected, rather than appointed. The senate agricultural committee will consider S.B. 144 in room 353 on Thursday morning.
I wish I could get down there for the hearing, because it could be entertaining.
They might call Fred Anderson, a former president of our
state senate. Speaking to an interim water committee, he
once said that If these boards were elected, qualified
people might not run.
They should ask him whether he
feels the same way about the state senate.
Or Sen. Bob De Nier might testify. He sits on the board of a conservancy district in Durango, and the judge continues to reappoint him, although my sources report that they can't ever recall him attending a public meeting of that board. That's the same board which once paid the Colorado Cattlemen's Association to pay Rep. Chris Paulson to lobby for the Animas-La Plata project.
Granted, elections wouldn't guarantee responsible or knowledgeable water district boards, just as elections don't guarantee a wise legislature or sensible school boards. But electing water boards would let us mere citizens determine how our money is spent.
Democracy has recently been winning in eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, even South Africa. We'll soon find out whether democracy has a chance in Colorado.
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