Letter: Needed: A second opinion on streets tax

If I were faced with a serious medical diagnosis requiring major surgery, the prudent thing would be to go for a competent third-party second opinion.

Well, Glenwood Springs faces drastic fiscal surgery as the voters are asked to fix our streets by approving a bond issue nearly doubling our bonded debt to $56 million in conjunction with a 20-year sales tax increase. Instead of being armed with an exhaustive analysis and endorsement by a recognized, competent outside review board, the city has relied only on vetting by its inside financial advisory board.

When asked to double our public debt, we the voters are entitled to more scrutiny and due diligence.

Even in the event voters would pass these debt and tax props, our streets will not be fixed now/overnight as the pro-tax yard signs flippantly suggest, but rather over a 10-year period. Instead, the prudent fiscal alternative is to start fixing our streets now by prioritizing $3 million from the current year’s revenue.

Surely the city can squeeze this amount from its $90 million budget following banner sales tax collections in 2018.

Please vote “No” on these flawed debt and tax proposals and give the City Council an opportunity to present a redo at the next election cycle subject to any proposal being vetted and endorsed by an independent financial review board .

Gerry VanderBeek,

Glenwood Springs