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Among other weighty matters -- turning public records into private records, making it illegal to disparage brussel sprouts, increasing the penalty for selling snuff to minors -- our state legislature is pondering a tax increase.
The idea is to raise the sales or income tax to produce an extra $30 million a year for parks and recreation.
When you consider how much Colorado has, and how little Colorado does with its bounty, it's embarrassing. Just about any county in Colorado has more scenery than all 77,355 square miles of Nebraska, yet Nebraska has great state parks -- visit Fort Robinson sometime. Vast stretches of Texas offer nothing but bunchgrass and sagebrush -- punctuated by charming roadside parks with interesting historical markers.
Sen. Tilman Bishop, one sponsor of the proposed tax
increase, explained that We think the needs are great
enough out there. The question is: What do we want Colorado
to be like in the year 2010 or 2050? Do we want our
succeeding generations, our grandchildren, to enjoy the
quality of life as we know it? If so, there are some things
we need to do.
Bishop is right. He's also a Colorado Republican, which
means he'll probably be expelled from the party for
political incorrectness. A real Republican would have said
We think there is a great need to develop more of this
unused real estate. Why let it sit around? Some succeeding
generation will make money that we could have made.
The major political obstacle to a tax increase is that a tax limitation amendment almost passed last year. Thus most legislators are gun-shy about tax increases -- vote for a tax increase, and come next election, you're a lobbyist. The money may be better, but you have to live with the stigma of defeat.
However, the legislature should realize why tax-limitation measures are popular. Remember when we approved a state lottery about a decade ago? And how the proceeds would fund parks and recreation?
Having made that promise to us, our state government proceeded to use lottery money to build prisons.
Parks and recreation have to be important to most Coloradans, since the only sensible reason to live here is that Colorado can be fun; this is certainly not an especially prosperous, cultured or healthy state.
Knowing our legislature, they'll proceed with the tax
increase for parks and recreation,
and we'll go
along with it. The new $30 million will indeed go for parks
and recreation -- but the previous sources of parks and
recreation funds will be reduced by $40 million.
It's too bad that things work that way. Colorado could use better state parks, and Coloradans are probably willing to pay for them. But here's somebody offering to sell you a park. The last time you bought a park from him, he gave you a prison. Are you going to buy any more parks from him?
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