Westcliffe Voters:
VOTE NO on Ballot Measure A!
Mayor Wenke Says the 50% Sales Tax Hike is “For the Roads”
It Really is a Slush Fund
and of Course, “For the Children”

by George Gramlich,
Commentary
Okay, Mayor Paul Wenke didn’t say “for the children”, but he just might have anyway. “For the roads” is the same thing. The question is again, to what lengths will politicians stoop to taking more of our money for their grandiose, wasteful, poorly planned spend-ing schemes. What we have going on here in the tiny, little town of Westcliffe, is what is happening in our state and in our country: tax and spend liberalism.
But let’s step back in time for a moment. Last year the town of Westcliffe Trustees voted to put a 50% Westcliffe sales tax increase “for the roads”, “for capital improvements” and “for our reserve fund” proposal on the ballot. According to Mayor Paul Wenke, they even went door-to-door in the town asking the citizens to vote for it. The wise citizens of the town voted it DOWN. They decided they could spend their own money better than the local government.
But, try keeping tax and spend politicians away from the golden trough that is OUR MONEY. So, not unsurprisingly, a divided
Westcliffe Town Council voted AGAIN to put the sales tax increase on the ballot for this year (Ballot Measure A). This is exactly
what the libs running the State of Colorado do almost every year with various orientations of TABOR elimination ballot initiatives.
Then, the heavens opened up, and the Sentinel received an email from the town asking me to come over and meet the Mayor of Westcliffe, Mr. Paul Wenke, and discuss this improper tax hike. Probably somewhat intentionally, even after working at the Sentinel for the last six years in Westcliffe, I had never met Paul, or even knew what he looked like. We agreed and set up the date. I also asked my partner in right-wing combat journalism, Fred Hernandez, to come along as a witness and bodyguard.
Most kidding aside, Paul was a gracious host and we had a very enjoyable meeting. His opening argument was that they needed MO’ money to fix some pavement issues in one of the subdivisions and they also needed mo’ money to put in their capital reserve fund for “other” projects.
This subdivision was something like 10 or 20 years old and some of the paved roads there needed fixing. I asked him why they haven’t been allocating some money every year for paved road repair KNOWING that this road, and others will eventually need some repair. I don’t think we got a straight answer on that one.
I then made a statement saying that the entire county and virtually all of our visitors shop in Westcliffe, and that the town of Westcliffe is taxing all of US for their road problems. Paul, of course, stated that we all use their roads and thus WE should help pay for them.
I responded with the fact that we are paying for them with the current sales tax and that the specific roads he is talking about is in a subdivision where virtually nobody goes. I also noted that the vast majority of people who go through Westcliffe do so on state-maintained roads except for the one stretch of west Main Street (and that piece has been recently paved). I again told Paul that this is a tax on all of us in the county to pay Westcliffe for repairs, etc. and that they should have been saving for this for years. Basically, they did not plan for the inevitable fact that someday their paved roads will need to be repaired and now the whole county is going to be penalized for it. Because of poor planning, we now all must be punished. Sound familiar?
Without any shame at all, I also used the libs argument that this tax will adversely affect our low-income population, who are often unable to go out of town to shop due to transportation or other issues. Paul countered with the statement that they estimate the average citizen will “only” pay $37.40 a year, which I disputed. (Politicians always use the word “only” when they describe their rapacious tax increase proposals.) That amount, or whatever it is, seems trivial to people with money, but when you are retired, only working part time, or making minimum wage, that $40 is real money. Believe me folks, if you throw away the Common Core/Obamacare math here, if you shop a lot in Westcliffe, as most of us do, this is going to cost you a LOT more than $40 a year.
Next, Paul stated they needed mo’ money for their capital reserve fund. He said if they don’t have money in that fund they can’t apply for GRANTS as they almost always need some money to kick in for the grant. Warming to the jab, I stated that these “free money” grants are OUR tax money also, coming from a different source and that with the country essentially bankrupt, it is wrong to use this money for non-essential capital projects. Paul then mentioned one specific road project with the estimated cost that he wanted to do. (He asked us not to mention it so we won’t). But, believe me, in my opinion, it is a COMPLETE waste of taxpayer money and a classic example of why we are broke today.
All in all, we sparred, there were no “shots fired”, and no offense was taken. I appreciate Paul asking us over.
Bottom Line: We, the people, feel that our town, county, state and national governing bodies should do a much better job at long term spending planning and prioritize their spending much, much better. What we have here in Westcliffe is the town council’s failure to properly plan and allocate. The answer is not mo’ money. The answer is better planning. Citizens of Westcliffe, VOTE NO on Ballot A. It is a unneeded 50% tax increase. Tell the politicians to do their job within their budget. Like we all do.
(The Town of Westcliffe Supports Local Business? Note that last summer, the Town of Westcliffe CANCELLED their $34 a year subscription to the Sentinel, citing “tightening the budget”. Nice, friendly move there. Politics anyone? What town government DOESN’T get the local newspaper?.)