OUR VIEW: Stormwater fees may be in tax bills

City voters decided they no longer want a Stormwater Enterprise Fee, so they approved issue 300 on the Nov. 3.

City government lost this source of money because a majority of voters considered the so-called “fee” on rain absurd, and resented the fact public servants imposed it without their permission. The fee funds new drainage facilities to handle runoff from driveways, rooftops, and other structures that don’t absorb water.

Property owners have no choice. They must let precipitation run from their properties, because the law says drainage belongs to someone downstream. One cannot collect the water in a cistern, or divert it into a garden or pool. By dwelling in a home, one creates runoff that would mostly soak into the ground if the land contained no buildings or pavement. That’s great for people in Kansas with water rights, because they’d have a hard time retrieving their water from Colorado soil. To manage runoff, city government builds drainage structures funded with the Enterprise Fee.

So think about it: A property owner with a roof, a driveway and a shed does some downstream water rights owner a favor by creating runoff. In addition to creating runoff for someone else, the property owner has been required to pay for infrastructure that helps transport it.

As Gazette-hosted “Broadside” blogger explained, the city charges for precipitation caused by impermeable surfaces and the state prohibits you “from preventing the rain from running into the storm sewer because the rain belongs to SOMEONE ELSE.”

Building drainage infrastructure is great, if taxpayers give permission. Short of permission, let the water flow where it may. If it creates mayhem, it’s the taxpayer’s problem.

Some on the City Council want to collect $1.8 million in stormwater fees that property owners have refused to pay. One proposal would place liens on homes, and El Paso County would place the overdue fees on property tax bills.

Since its inception, the fee has resembled a tax that’s called a fee only because city officials didn’t seek permission, as required for new taxes by the state Constitution and city charter. A fee is voluntary, and there was nothing voluntary about it. But citizens were told it’s a fee, because it was levied by an enterprise that operates like a private business and a business can’t levy a tax.

If it was an enterprise fee, something other than a government tax, an overdue balance should not show up in the mail as part of a tax bill. That would end any question as to whether it was a fee or an illegal tax, and it would unveil the enterprise as a full-fledged branch of government.

The recent election tells us citizens of Colorado Springs don’t like being deceived. We may need drainage improvements. But city servants need to obey the law. They need to ask permission to raise taxes. If the voters make unwise decisions, they make them for themselves. City government belongs to the governed, who vote to determine its size, its wealth, and its scope of authority.