OUR VIEW: More mud thrown at our frugal city (vote in poll)

Another day, another hatchet job on Colorado Springs for declining a large tax increase last fall in the midst of recession — as voters have done throughout the country.

The Denver Post published its latest anti-Springs screed July 4, reprinted in Monday’s Gazette, which repeats common propaganda used to denigrate the Springs. “What’s a city to do,” asks the story by reporter Douglas Brown, when “there aren’t enough police officers to investigate crimes?”

Wow, that is alarming. It’s also non-attributed mythology.

“That’s just not true at all. We investigate all sorts of crime,” said Sgt. Darrin Abbink, a public information officer with the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Police administrators didn’t even consider eliminating a unit that conducts undercover investigations of strip joints — a level of investigation that goes beyond conventional policing. The department recently conducted sting investigations of medical marijuana dispensaries, in case they were doing something wrong. The department investigates big crimes, small crimes and potential crimes all day long. Unlike the Denver police, the Springs department has the accreditation of the Commission for Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies — a standard that’s unattainable by departments without “enough police officers to investigate crimes.”

Violent crime in the Springs is about half the national average for cities with populations of 250,000 or more. Denver’s violent crime rate exceeds the national average, yet we’re the city to fear because our taxes are low.

“If thieves break into a car or home and steal — a felony — the report is usually taken over the phone now,” the Post said.

Sure, just like in Denver and most other large cities.

“We take property crimes by phone or over the Internet,” said John White, a public affairs detective with the Denver Police Department, speaking to The Gazette’s editorial department. “We respond with an officer, at some point, if the reporting party insists.”

That is exactly how it works in Colorado Springs, Abbink said. An officer shows up at the scene of a nonviolent property crime if the complainant insists, and the response time is determined by other demands. It’s nothing new.

The Post story describes a variety of reactions to a city getting by on less: “for some, there is anger and lost jobs.”

The unexplained “lost jobs” reference leaves readers to perceive high unemployment as a result of low taxes. Never mind the fact low taxes enable private employers to pay more and create jobs. Of the 50 largest cities in the country, Denver ranks 20th for unemployment based on the latest information from the Department of Labor Statistics; Colorado Springs ranks 14th (also see Denver County/El Paso County unemployment graph). Denver’s taxes are higher, and so is the city’s unemployment. Furthermore, people in the Springs earn more than people in Denver — partly because of low taxes.

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Like others before it, the Post story describes the city’s brilliant conservation program — in which one-third of streetlights were turned off — in disparaging terms: “Some — meaning those who can afford it — pay extra to turn on the streetlights in front of their own houses.”

Yes, and others ask City Hall to turn off the nearby lights to reduce coal pollution and glare. Shouldn’t the city earn points for fighting global warming?

The story tells us how private contributions have kept community centers open and fountains flowing. We’re assured it won’t work out: “The donations help, but they are temporary.” Some economists would argue that low taxes encourage sustainable philanthropy. We aren’t told how the objective reporter knows otherwise.

The story takes the usual swipe at the Springs for reducing bus service, failing to mention that Colorado Springs — not Denver — provides the only public transit between the two cities with its Front Range Express. The story mentions three closed pools, never pointing out that New York — with some of the highest taxes in the country — nearly closed every city pool this summer to save money. City officials kept them open, but only after settling on devastating cuts to senior centers, day care and adult literacy programs.

Colorado Springs remains among the more successful cities in the country, with less crime and more prosperity than one finds in cities with much higher taxes. In the Springs, the media’s poster city of danger and despair, the median family income is $67,774 ; Denver’s is $55,916 . In addition, the cost of living is much lower — in part because of low taxes. Based on Sperling’s cost of living calculator , a Denver family would need $74,580 to live as well as a family earning the median $67,774 in the Springs.

Few cities are as safe and financially stable as Colorado Springs. The facts speak for themselves. That’s why the campaign to malign the Springs for frugality relies on conjecture and myth.

— Wayne Laugesen , editorial page editor, for the editorial board. Friend him on Facebook