ELECTION: Issue 1A would aid economic development
As the national recession deepens and the Pikes Peak region's unemployment rate rises, you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who doesn't want more jobs for Colorado Springs' economy.
How best to create, attract and retain those jobs is at the heart of Issue 1A on the April 7 city ballot.
The measure asks whether voters want to retain an existing 0.665 mill levy that's set to expire at the end of this year, extend the tax through 2025 and use its estimated $3.2 million a year for economic development and job creation. The tax would cost a little more than $10 annually for owners of a $200,000 home, proponents have estimated.
The measure calls for the City Council to appoint a five-person panel to recommend how the money would be spent; the council would make final spending decisions.
The measure comes at a time when the local unemployment rate climbed to 7 percent in December - the highest level in nearly nine years. Pueblo has had a voter-approved, economic development sales tax for years. The Springs, for the most part, has relied on the private, nonprofit Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp.; money generated by the tax extension would complement the EDC's efforts, but not replace them.
"I view this as an investment," said Springs accountant Jerry Biggs, who leads the JOBS NOW Committee, a group of local business people, employees and others promoting the measure. "Our city budget is struggling. The only way to create a sustainable economy here is by working on economic development."
Without raising taxes, the ballot measure would establish a new economic development tool to help Colorado Springs compete for jobs and employers against other cities that have heftier war chests, Biggs said.
While the advisory panel and City Council would determine how to spend the money, Biggs said possibilities include boosting marketing efforts to woo employers from places such as financially strapped and regulation-heavy California. Money also could be used to address the problems of local employers and encourage them to remain here and expand their operations; the community doesn't pay enough attention to the needs and concerns of existing businesses, he said.
And, the money could be spent on financial incentives. That's a touchy subject because Colorado Springs has traditionally offered little in direct financial aid to employers, especially compared with the millions sometimes provided by other cities and states.
But, Biggs said, he envisions only one-fourth or less of the money being used for incentives.
It's true employers might choose to come to the Springs or expand here because of low utility rates and taxes, well-trained workers and quality of life, Biggs said. It's unrealistic not to offer incentives, however, if you hope to attract and retrain employers who are being wooed by cities and states that don't blink at the use of financial assistance, he said.
"When you add all those things up," Biggs said of the Springs' quality of life and other pluses, "we may still win. But because we don't have any money for incentives or any money to play the (economic development) game, we aren't considered. Just having the pot of money gets us into the game in a lot more situations."
But the city can still win without a taxpayer-supported government program that's vague and lacks accountability, said Sean Paige, The Gazette's former editorial page editor, who now is executive director of advocacy group Local Liberty Action and editor of LocalLibertyOnline.org.
Streamlining burdensome government regulations, removing the business personal property tax and improving education, among other steps, would go a long way toward making the local business climate more attractive without relying on a taxpayer subsidy, he said.
The ballot measure fails to specify how money will be spent, leaving decisions to City Council members who lack economic development expertise, Paige said.
Among several other unanswered questions, he said, the ballot measure also fails to explain what criteria businesses would have to meet to receive aid and how such criteria would be established.
When it comes to incentives, Paige said, they can be risky and don't guarantee results.
For example, he cited Frontier Airlines' maintenance hangar planned for the Springs' airport and slated to receive $300,000 a year in city incentives, but which was scrubbed last year because of the carrier's financial troubles.
Paige challenged local business leaders to create their own venture capital fund as a source of incentives, and urged community leaders to resist getting involved with "mercenary" companies.
"As a community," Paige said, "what would be a long-term benefit is to not play the game, to say we're not going to reach into the taxpayers' pockets to pay bribes to companies, but what we will do is work day and night, to clear away the barriers, to keep our taxes low, to keep our utilities low, to educate a work force for you through our public schools and focus on that. That is going to be the key to our long-term economic vitality, not $3.2 million a year."
¬
-
Call Laden at 636-0228
MORE INFORMATION
• www.votejobsnow.com
• www.locallibertyonline.org
• www.springsgov.com/clerk and click on "City Elections."
BALLOT QUESTION 1A
"Without raising additional taxes, shall the existing .665 general property mill levy tax be extended from its current expiration of December 31, 2009 through December 31, 2025 to be used exclusively to create, attract and retain primary jobs, market and promote Colorado Springs, require City Council to create and appoint a five person Job Opportunity and Business Sustainability Committee with no more than two members of City Council appointed thereto, to make recommendations to City Council pertaining to the expenditure and use of such revenue, with all revenues and expenditures constituting a voter-approved revenue change?"
ELECTION COVERAGE
This story is part of The Gazette's ongoing coverage of candidates and issues in the April 7 Colorado Springs mail-ballot election. Voters will elect four City Council members and decide four questions about city finances. Watch the paper and gazette.com/election for more news and analysis.
