Speak up to the unelected boards in this state: my testimony at the AQCC meeting last night. The property tax commission is up and running. Who are they? How can you get involved?
Speak up to the unelected boards in this state
I testified at the AQCC (Air Quality Control Commission) meeting yesterday. My testimony is below and I chose to testify again because the AQCC has made several moves in the past couple months that further intrude into the market and into the lives of ordinary Coloradans.
Further, I have heard some disturbing rumors about planned excesses (I'll update as I hear more and/or as things become reality).
I do not expect things to change greatly, but that's not the point here. The point here is that you need to speak up because these boards are surrounded by a cloud of people that agree with them.
Sober, thoughtful sharing of viewpoints that go counter to what they hear all the time may not cause them to fall to their knees, throw their hands to heaven, and yell, "I was wrong!"
It still has tremendous value, however, because it alerts these boards to the fact that not everyone agrees. This is all the more pertinent when they hear these things more than once.
Maybe this is influenced by my being a teacher, but we sometimes don't see the fruits of our efforts in the here and now. Sometimes, like I have had happen with students, the results come months or years later.
Speak up now based on the hope that it will matter. It will.
My testimony is below if it's useful for you.
Good afternoon all,
My name is Cory Gaines. I'm a lifelong resident of Colorado.
Like everyone listening, I want a clean environment to pass along to my daughter.
What I am not so sure of, however, is the way in which we are going about it. In other words, there are many means that would produce the same end and we need to be careful in how we do things. The real world is also a complicated place and no one group can anticipate every consequence--intended or not.
Therefore I ask:
--Is an unelected, unaccountable board the best way to reach a mutually beneficial solutions and consensus?
--Should we have a single group of political appointees deciding how we mow our lawns, get to work, what cars we drive? Should they be deciding, on shaky modeling, to force building owners to spend wads of cash?
--What has this board done to NOT make itself a cloistered group of bureaucrats who only hear and listen to the same crowd of experts and advocates? What have you done to actively seek counterpoint? What have you done to include the voices of everyday citizens across this state? Those who, incidentally, will ultimately get to live with the decisions you make?
In short, I am surprised that we allow such an intrusion into the lives of so many by so few. My fear is that by not speaking up about this sort of thing now and publicly sharing what you do, we'll just have more of the same.
Thank you.
Related:
Large building owners (the ones I reference as needing to shell out wads of cash due to the AQCC's decisions in my testimony) have decided to band together to sue the state over the AQCC's new rules regarding energy standards.
I wish them luck, but unless they can somehow shoehorn this to a Federal suit, I don't think their effort will amount to dry ... poop.
We all know how the courts lean in this state and we all know that they'll more than likely simply rubberstamp what the AQCC did here.
At any rate, more details below.
https://denvergazette.com/news/business/big-building-owners-sue-colorado/article_4cd412d8-95eb-11ee-9f72-17cb0e3f124c.html
The property tax commission is up and running. Who are they? When and how will they meet? How can you get involved?
We now have the appointees lined up for the newly-created commission on property tax (the one created in the recent special session).
The article below details the appointees to the newly-created commission along with the people/parties that got to choose them.
I'll leave it to you to read up on the details, but a couple things are notable here.
--First, the commission is actually fairly bipartisan. I believe, though it isn't covered in the article below, that we have Democrat Senator Mullica to thank for this in large part. If I recall correctly, he held out for more local government and more Republican members. If this is the case, this is worthy of special mention (and praise for Mullica) because of its being unusual.
--Second, the commission also has a fair number of local government officials on it (including assessors who are the experts at property tax).
I suppose we'll see what they come up with and what the supermajority Democrats choose to do with their ideas in the coming session.
In the meantime, take note of who's on the board and keep your eyes and ears open. I put out an email to see if the reporter knows of any opportunities for interested folks to send comment to the board. If and when I hear back, I'll update.
https://tsscolorado.com/new-commission-on-property-tax-has-its-appointees-and-some-surprises-in-its-makeup/
Related:
This came across my desk after writing the above and I didn't have time to go in and edit to make it part of the earlier post.
The first meeting of the Property Tax Commission (where I've been told they will discuss public testimony) will take place on 12/20 and you can follow the meeting through the interim schedule below (scroll down to the 12/20 row and you'll see it). I also popped out a link to the committee itself below that.
https://leg.colorado.gov/interim-schedule
https://leg.colorado.gov/committees/commission-property-tax/2023-regular-session