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Letter: No to more taxes

As property owners, our taxes continue to increase every year. Many people don’t realize how much property tax they are paying because it is included in their mortgage payment. There are a lot of people in Garfield County who are retired and on limited incomes who have a hard time paying their property taxes.

A few years ago the library district was approved and property owners were told the gas companies would pay most of the cost. The library district overbuilt, and through extravagant spending is having a hard time keeping the doors open. This year our property taxes were increased because most of the gas companies have moved out of Garfield County, along with the funding for the libraries.

Ballot issue 1A is a good idea, except property owners should not be required to fund it. These museums would not have enough use by local taxpayers to warrant being open full time year-round. The county needs to do more research on other ways to fund 1A, maybe a sales tax. Please vote no on 1A.

4A should be two separate issues. The idea that 85 percent of the tax will be paid by the oil and gas industry is not correct because most of this industry has moved out of  our county, and this is why our taxes were raised last spring to pay for this same promise the library district told us.

The current district board relies on its Grand Junction contractor to tell it how to spend our money on any construction. The last hospital construction project employed approximately 95 percent of workers and subcontractors from Grand Junction.

The current building has a lot of wasted space that could be converted to provide 18 additional rooms for a lot less money than $89.4 million. The current building has several large event rooms that are seldom used and could be converted to approximately 12 to 14 hospital rooms. The south entrance has a three-story atrium that could be converted to provide approximately six rooms and would still have a very attractive check in desk area. What we need is an economical and functional hospital, not an architectural monument.

E. D. Moore Care Center can be remodeled and expanded at the current site. This would save taxpayers millions of dollars.

Before a construction project of this size is put on the ballot, the hospital district should get more input from property taxpayers. They also need to tell us how much each project will cost.

Please vote no on 4A.

Fred Kuersten

Silt


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