More regarding ballot issue 2E

A constituent emailed me about why Council would put a tax on "recycling" on the ballot. I wanted to share my opinion on this. This is my opinion and other councilmembers may have their own reasons for supporting or opposing this measure.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like every city government right now, Sheridan is struggling to continue to provide quality services although our tax revenues are down severely (33% this year). We are facing some very difficult decisions about how to continue to provide high quality services in 2010. Back in June, the City held a "town hall meeting" to allow citizens to voice their opinions on the possibility that we might need to outsource our dispatch and fire services to balance the budget. The overwhelming direction we got from the citizens at that meeting was that it was unacceptable to outsource our fire services.

We have to fill our budget gap somehow to respond to the desire of the citizens. We have cut the budget to the bone already - down about 20% from $8M to $6M. The other way to balance the budget is to increase revenues. Ballot issues 2D and 2E are two possibilities we are giving the citizens of Sheridan to keep our fire services in-house by increasing our revenues. Currently, junk and salvage activities (primarily Western Metals) pay very little in the way of tax. WM in particular only pays a $8,000 "in lieu of tax" amount to the City every year. You may find it interesting that the opponents of 2E have already spent around $16,000 to prevent it from passing. They also sued the City to change the ballot language from "junk and salvaged materials" to "recycled materials" and lost. "Junk and salvaged materials" does include some materials that are recyclable and others that are not, and it does not include everything that a person can recycle. Also consider how the amount of the tax limits its impact: at $1.75 per TON, this does not greatly impact our citizens who may do some small amounts of recycling at the facilities, but it does impact the out-of-town trucks full of smashed cars and other materials.

One other point on the claims of the opponents - WM currently only employs one Sheridan resident, so while technically WM offers "Sheridan jobs" (jobs physically in our city), they are not doing much for the citizens.

I feel like each person has to decide whether they believe this proposed tax is fair and whether its purpose (keeping our safety services intact) makes it worth voting for. I personally have grappled with it and decided to vote yes.

Thanks for asking, and I hope this explanation is helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions or comments.

The Denver Post Voter Guide

The Denver Post voter guide is now online at http://voterguide.denverpost.com/. My profile is posted at http://voterguide.denverpost.com/candidate-detail.do?id=189949464.

Signs opposing ballot issue 2E (salvage tax)

Signs posted this week in Sheridan urge our residents to "protect Sheridan jobs" by voting no on ballot issue 2E. I'd like to point out that the business likely to have funded those signs only employs one Sheridan resident.

On the other hand, if Sheridan residents think it is important for our city to be able to keep our safety services in-house, a vote for 2E is a major step in that direction.