THE SPYGLASS: People pushing sales tax are flush

Patti French works housekeeping at the Cliff House in Manitou Springs, but she's thinking about taking a second job to pay her bills. She turned 49 this week and doesn't own her home.

Thomas Montoya, disabled from his construction job, also rents and buys his clothes at a second-hand store.

Those scenarios hardly apply to a group of people who want French and Montoya and the rest of the people in El Paso County to pay $70 million more in sales taxes annually.

Although it's not possible to know the financial condition of those pushing the tax, one way to measure it is to see where they live.

Just so you know, members of the pro-tax Citizens for Effective Government not only own their homes, but their average value is $355,900, according to assessor's records.

That's 48 percent higher than the average price of all homes in El Paso County.

No surprise who the members represent: the Housing and Building Association, Economic Development Corporation, Chamber of Commerce, Pikes Peak Association of Realtors, Downtown Partnership and Council of Neighbors and Organizations and other familiar groups.

The committee spent more than a year studying the situation and then declared a crisis is at hand. Crime is rising; health services are declining.

The committee's answer: a 1 percent countywide sales tax.

But here's something else: While the county has 47 ZIP codes, the committee represents 11. Also, nine members are from one ZIP code - in the Peregrine area - while another five are 06ers - the Broadmoor area.

None lives in Manitou Springs or Fountain or Falcon, or anywhere east of Academy Boulevard to the county line. (See a map to the right)

Here's something else to ponder. Sales taxes are regressive; they soak the poor more than the rich.

When a person earning $20,000 a year buys a $20,000 car and pays 5 percent sales tax, that's $1,000, or 5 percent of his income. If a man with a $300,000 salary buys that same car and pays a 5 percent sales tax, that's only three-tenths of 1 percent of his income.

What does it all mean?

Patti French has this to say: "Every time you turn around, they say a tax, a tax. What about us? We're struggling."

Kramer update

Former Colorado Springs police chief and city manager Lorne Kramer, a member of the CEG, is now an organizational consultant and headhunter.

After retiring in June 2007, Kramer joined with two former police chief buddies in KRW Associates. (www.krw-associates.com/1.html)

No, he's not working for the city and says he won't. But one of the firm's members helped find Police Chief Richard Myers two years ago. He got the bid fair and square, Kramer said.

Given the anemic economy and its squeeze on government, a lot of Kramer's clients are looking for how to reorganize to save money.

"It's trying times," he said. "Everybody is stretched pretty thin and looking for better and cheaper ways of doing government business." Who says consultants are the first to go in a weak economy? "Life is good," Kramer said.
World traveler

Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera left this week for the Olympics in Bejing. But he's traveling on his yuan, not the city's or the U.S. Olympic Committee's. "He felt that was the right thing to do, considering where our budget is right now," city spokeswoman Sue Skiffington-Blumberg said.

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Contact the writer: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazette.com