Colorado's TABOR laws are working exactly as planned. Taxes are down and the government in some counties and towns have been reduced in a big way.
There is a small problem though...
As property-tax rates tumble and sales-tax revenue evaporates, residents in the backyard of Douglas Bruce— the state's leading evangelist of small government and small taxes — are learning just how small government can get. So far, voters have shown no inclination to part with any more tax dollars.
Now, local leaders are warning that with no fat left to cut, basic services such as law enforcement, courts, public health and child-abuse investigations are all in jeopardy.
El Paso County's budget has shed $45 million over the past three years, clipped by the generosity of past tax-cutting county commissioners, stretched by the demands of a surging population and perpetually in the sights of limited-government forces. - Denver Post
A look at exactly what's happening after the jump...
Here's a list of cuts and lack of services from the above article
For years, the health department has lacked the staff to inspect restaurants and other food providers twice a year, as required by state law. Department director Kandi Buckland said it's no coincidence that "in 2008, preliminary data showed El Paso County had the largest number of food-borne illness" in the state.
• The health department has stopped inspecting day-care centers and won't inspect swimming pools this summer. That might make swimmers queasy, considering that last year, the department closed 80 pools — including six contaminated with E. coli.
• The Sheriff's Office has the same number of patrol deputies it had in 1998, when there were 70,000 fewer residents. In some parts of the county, it takes deputies 22 minutes — more than double the ideal time — to arrive when someone calls 911.
• Most county offices are closed on Friday.
• When gas prices peaked last summer, Sheriff Terry Maketa ordered patrol cars parked. Deputies stopped cruising and instead waited for calls to come in. DUI arrests plummeted.
• The coroner's office, where space is so cramped that human-tissue samples are stored in a garage behind the main building, has only four investigators. Two of them have to be on duty at all times.
• The city of Colorado Springs has cut 173 jobs since December — out of a workforce that once numbered 632.
• The county clerk's office employs the same number of people it did in 1994. That partially explains the recent dust-up when County Clerk Robert Balink was accused of telling staff not to answer the phones.
Yet Douglas Bruce thinks places like Colorado Springs are wasting money...
He also questions the need to pay county staff so much and for paid vacations. "Why are we paying people to have a vacation?"
They'll never get it. I only hope the voters start understanding what people like Bruce have done to them.