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Incorporation: Here We Go Again

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Contributed by: Donna Hartley on 12/24/2006

This is the third time that I know of that we have an incorporation movement in Black Forest. I read Bobbie Harris' articles and she seems to think she is educating the local rustics with something quite new and extraordinary. Isn't it wonderful that we have a group here who wants to preserve our lifestyle and not disrespect the environment in Black Forest? Don't we all?

Every person that moves in is tempted to roll up the welcome mat and shut the door behind himself. After all we don't want others to impact the lifestyle that we have newly discovered. Excuse me, but 23 years ago I impacted the lifestyle of the people who came here before me just as others impacted it for the people who preceeded them. Ms. Harris has changed it yet again by moving here two years ago. We cannot change this impact as it's a fact of life. Making Black Forest into a town would only escalate this change and yes, create opportunity for abuse as well as the necessity for a larger tax base.

The very first thing you need for incorporation is an "urban setting." You need the tax base to cover your costs. You may downplay those costs all you like but they are as sure to escalate as anything you will ever pay for with the projections not even being reliable for one year. Look at the towns around us again, again and yet again. Their residents are just as smart and well educated as our arrogant selves. They are having the usual difficulties with their budgets.

A business pays six and a half times as much tax as a homeowner and hopefully you will have plenty of business to sustain the costs you will incur. Castle Rock has an absolute "cash cow" as one politician told me. That is the Outlet Mall with it's numerous shops spread over a lot of acreage. Parker is another such example with many lucrative new shopping areas. We have neither.

Palmer Lake and Monument don't have cash cows but they certainly have more businesses than we do. They are struggling to balance those budgets and Palmer Lake is asking for more at this point as the leadership says it must increase the tax rate to pay for the necessities. Without more business money must come solely from the homeowners. Yet again we can't overtax businesses or these entities will vote with their wheels....by moving elsewhere. There are other small towns in Colorado with similar problems but by looking close to home you will hopefully see reality more clearly.

Right now we have a lot of snow and we are the area in El Paso County that absorbs most of the budget for removal. I have seen that we take 85% of the county budget with the city and remaining county using the other 4%. The county tax will not go down if we incorporate but our snow removal budget will be just one aspect of that tax added to our shoulders and it is enormous.

So how do we pay for all of this? We can invite more businesses in. I saw the brouha that the Thee Occasion Events Center caused while being built. It is another taxable entity with it's owner, Millie Carlton, proving to be a gracious neighbor, but you would have thought we were being overrun by the hordes of Attila the Hun from the reaction of some of our local brethren. I wonder what some of these good folks will say if a few more shopping centers have to come in to offset their taxes.

As for stopping development around us, we need to remember one fact of life. Other people have legal rights that go with ownership of their land. How many court cases will we fight on behalf of the new town? Where will the money come from? I am sure some local lawyers out here will find this very lucrative employment for years to come but I don't wish provide anyone this type of job security. Furthermore the developers love incorporation. It allows them to not pay for things that the new town must now provide.

I'm not writing anything new here as this is the truthful ground that the Black Forest Anti-Incorporation Group has covered many times before. It is rather a plea to the taxpayers here to learn from empircal experience. I don't care if Ms. Harris finds our website dull or unimaginative. We are hardly interested in slick advertising but actually what we will have to pay for and loose with this movement. We are more worried about what many people may not see or understand unless they have seen or been caught up in an incorporation change where they have previously lived. Donna Hartley dtocci@juno.com

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Submitted By: Rosemarie Greenhalgh

posted on 12/28/2006 @ 7:44:10 AM

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I lived in the Black Forest when the last newcomer started a incorporation movement because he wanted to be mayor. Thank goodness it was shot down, incorporation will ruin the small town feeling of the Black Forest. I had to move into town 11 years ago because the taxes were getting to high and I knew I could not afford to pay them when I retired. Every time I am out there I drive by the home I had build.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFO

Donna Hartley

Colorado Springs , CO

Donna Hartley has posted 3 stories and 2 comments since joining on 12/21/2006. Donna Hartley 's average story rating is 0.

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