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Finally I've seen an effect of Amendment One, which was supposed to limit spending by state and local governments, thereby leaving more money in my pocket and making Colorado a better place to live.
But to date, Amendment One will cost our household about $120 more a year, and our area will be uglier, with more petty laws whose enforcement will increase local taxes.
How did this come about? The Chaffee County Sanitary Landfill sits between Salida and Buena Vista. Operating costs came from general county funds like property and sales taxes, and there were no additional fees to use the dump.
Consequently, a trip to the dump after cleaning the yard might have been a nuisance, but it took no out-of-pocket money. The local trash company charged minimal rates, and if you saw some debris while strolling down an alley, you'd just toss it into the nearest can -- nobody minded.
Governmental policy thus encouraged us to keep our environs clean; we were paying for the dump anyway, so we might as well make full use of it.
But the old dump was getting full, and the county began negotiating for a nearby parcel. Modern dumps must meet stringent EPA specifications, so the new dump would cost substantially more to operate.
Thanks to the inflexibility of Amendment One, though,
the county couldn't quickly raise local taxes to cover
increased dump costs. The commissioners made the dump an
enterprise fund
which collects tip fees from trash
companies and private dumpers.
The trash haulers couldn't just absorb this major increase in their cost of business, so our trash bill went from $12.50 a month to $22.00 -- and I haven't noticed any corresponding decrease in local taxes.
So the cost of living rises. The quality of life will decline. Now that there's an out-of-pocket cost for getting rid of trash, more people will just let it accumulate in their back yards. Others will drop their garbage bags next to the road or use a convenient ravine; a county that promotes unspoiled mountains to tourists will have more filth and stench in the foreground.
Further, the civic-minded act of tossing a piece of alley trash into the nearest can is now a crime. People feared that low-life neighbors might freeload and use their now-expensive trash cans, so the city passed a law against unauthorized trash deposits.
Enforcing the law will mean more cop time and more court time while neighbors harbor dark suspicions of each other every time they see something unfamiliar in the trash barrel. Taxes will have to rise on that account.
Thus we have neighbor set against neighbor, more trash in yards and along roads, and a higher cost of living. Thank you, Doug Bruce, and if we ever hold a community bonfire to get rid of trash we can't afford to dump properly, I'll be sure to invite you, or at least an effigy.
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