Government's insatiable hunger for YOUR money. Spending and creep. Government "freebie's" which ignore reality.
Government's insatiable hunger for YOUR money.
I'm going to take some quotes from Mr. Armstrong's op ed below and just lay them all here on the table together (the op ed is worth reading in its entirety but I like the contrast):
--Denver already has sales taxes approaching 9%, and a proposal to support Denver Health would push that number past 9% if approved by voters this fall.
-- ... Mayor Mike Johnston’s office is pushing the idea of an additional 0.5% sales tax increase to support affordable housing.
-- According to Denver’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) for 2022, the city took in $677 million in sales taxes.
-- The final 2023 numbers aren’t in yet, but using the state’s accounting for county-level retail sales, we can expect it to be around $1.26 billion, for an annualized increase of 9.2% over seven years.
-- If the sales levels for the first quarter of 2024 continue on track, it should be another 2.5% increase this year.
-- According to Census estimates, Denver had 696,000 residents in 2016. By last year, that had risen to only 717,000, an annualized increase of merely 0.4%. Which means the per capita sales tax revenue has risen at an 8.8% annualized rate.
-- In 2016, it [the annual per capita sales tax paid by an individual living in Denver] was $972; last year, it was a whopping $1750. For a family of four, that amounts to $3100, or $260 a month. That alone could easily be the difference between an apartment or even a mortgage being affordable and having to move.
If there is one thing that can be said about government, and I say this to a great extent irrespective of party control, it's that government will never be satisfied with the amount you give them. No matter how much of your income you fork over, no matter how big a sacrifice it is for your family, they will not be satisfied.
There is no endpoint. Thus it is important that you and I and others continue to fight for protections like those afforded us by TABOR. You can reasonably depend on (based on the last four years) the Democrats eagerly taking more from you, but do not think that every single Republican is on board with you re. fiscal responsibility. Some of them are just as apt to.
Let me end with Mr. Scharf's parting words because they sum it up better than I could.
"So the net result is this. The city government is already swimming in revenue. It nevertheless finds ways to spend that money without attending properly to core services."
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2024/07/09/sharf-denver-swimming-sales-tax-revenue-wants-more/
Government spending and mission creep.
I ended the last post with a quote which contained the following:
"The city [Denver] government is already swimming in revenue. It nevertheless finds ways to spend that money without attending properly to core services."
I wanted to continue on this theme with something that, while not necessarily detailing a problem in Denver, relates to the idea that the government is adept at taking money to "fix" a problem and not delivering.
That is, taking your money, expanding its mission well beyond the original problem, and then needing more of it (while still not actually fixing the original problem).
Think what you will about efforts to take government money and use it to create and/or subsidize affordable housing. I think we can all agree, however, that if money is to be taken for that, it should go to those that actually need affordable housing.
According to the Sun article below, this is increasingly not happening here in Colorado. The first few paragraphs are replete with examples of how the state has given money and incentives (and has overriden ballot measures) to expand who qualifies for "affordable" housing, in cases aiming at families making $170K a year.
That number frustrated me because, as a member of a family making substantially less than that, I don't think it's fair to take my money and give it to those making more. I work hard and live within my means to afford my little Palace on the Plains.
Further, I don't think it fair to the people with genuine need that they would have to stand in line for limited resources next to those making more than either of us.
Nonetheless, turn the solution over to the government and you're apt to end up with problems like these.
There is the hazard of "mission creep" with government programs. Why not broaden the scope? Why not do more (needed or not)?
We needn't put thought into spending judiciously, we didn't have to work to earn this money, taxpayers did.
https://coloradosun.com/2024/07/18/colorado-affordable-housing-middle-income-tax-credit/
Government "freebie's" which ignore reality.
Last one on government spending for today: when the government gets involved in paying for things, demand goes up, prices go up, and the need for more of your money goes up.
When you offer something for free, you had better expect that even those with the means to do for themselves will capitalize on it. This is similar to what we see when your health insurance is the one who PAYS while you are the one who DECIDES.
Maybe you wouldn't get that MRI if you had to shell out the money, but as long as insurance is paying ...
I would make my kids lunch myself, but if someone else is paying ...
This is what we're seeing with the voter-approved program that made school lunches "free" for all. At first there was news of a shortfall and ideas batted around to solve it (see the first link below for an earlier newsletter on this subject). Problem didn't get fixed since March of this year either. I'm not sure, but I'd bet it's gotten bigger. Quoting the Gazette article linked second below:
"When Colorado voters approved “Healthy School Meals for All” two years ago, organizers behind the ballot initiative estimated the program would cost $115 million in its first year. The actual costs significantly exceeded that — $166 million — leaving state lawmakers scrambling with the financial fallout."
And the reason why doesn't take a genius to figure out. Again, quoting the Gazette:
"Hunger Free Colorado, one of the organizations behind the voter-approved measure, had anticipated 60,000 schoolchildren would participate in the program. More than that did. Roughly 184,000 students ate a free breakfast and 435,000 students ate a free lunch across the state daily, said Brehan Riley, executive director of the School Nutrition Unit at Colorado Department of Education. Those numbers — Riley said — represent a 40% increase in participation in breakfast and a 34% in lunch. Riley noted these participation numbers were 'even higher than what was seen during the pandemic when meals were free for all.'”
Well, yeah, when someone else is paying, why not?
The current fix is to have the JBC shell out education dollars ($56 million dollars to get us through the next school year, money which comes from the general education fund and will come at the cost of other education-related things it could be spent on), but the supporters are already thinking and planning about coming back again with their hands out for more money to make this sustainable.
How about a limit to the number of people that can get the free food? You know, kind of like it was before? That didn't occur to anyone?
Thus one of the dynamics behind government's insatiable appetite for your money. When it's free, need or no, people will gladly take it. This is followed up by a newly-created expectation that the freebies won't stop or be curtailed. Then they come again, to ask for more money to give out free stuff.
One reason among many we've seen today why the government just can't seem to get enough of your money.
One reason among many why we shouldn't be so eager to try and get the government to "fix" things for us.
One reason among many for you to continue to support things like TABOR that respect your wallet.
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/if-you-offer-food-at-no-cost-to-everyone?r=15ij6n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://denvergazette.com/news/cost-of-colorados-free-school-meals-program-is-out-of-control/article_77b2bc0e-445d-11ef-b998-a79f66a6ff81.html