A Republican Tax Cut

I'm sure somewhere someone promised a tax cut. Somewhere someone underestimated the amount required to do a job only Government can do and instead of finding a bathtub to drown Government in, the GOPers in charge of Arapahoe County chose a storm sewer. Maybe it was a gift to developers, maybe an undercollection of property taxes but for some reason, I got a card in the mail informing me I was about to be assessed for stormwater management.

Apparently it's for $76 million in stormwater improvements - read necessary drains to support the cancerous development in our area - and for unfunded Federal mandates. Okay, so we didn't fund the mandate at the Federal level, doubtless to make one of Bush's hoodin rob tax cuts (rob from the poor, give to the rich) square with the outlay. So that's been passed down to, ultimately, the county level. Instead of making the developers (and future homeowners) pay for the needed upgrades, they're passing it on to me.

The definition of impervious surface is an interesting one, too. My roof is an impervious surface although all storm water runs off into my yard, into my soil to nourish my grass. Yet that will be included in the assessment. The agency assessing the fee performed the analysis to determine how much of my property is "impervious". My patio never drains anywhere except into my yard. I'm sure that's in my assessment.

Long story short, this is the result of GOPer tax cuts - the bill gets passed down. The party who claims to support individual initiative is now passing the costs of development on to me, living in an area that's been developed for fifteen years. Government, reduced to a size capable of being drowned in a storm drain, is no longer capable of meeting its bills with the taxes it takes in; therefore, the cost gets passed from developers and McMansion owners to, well, me.

By the way, I don't own the sidewalk. Bill Arapahoe County for that one.