Bridges? We don't need to show you no shiny new bridges!

Our infrastructure is crumbling. Repblicans don't want to invest in our nation or communities, and Democrats need to figure out how to justify taxes in a greedy new gilded age.

Death to TABOR

Steve, stating the obvious:

Have you looked around Colorado Springs lately? Did you know there are Web sites listing the latest home sales in your neighborhood due to foreclosure and bankruptcy? Have you seen the empty commercial properties along large sections of Academy Boulevard?

When did you get your last TABOR refund? How much? Did the tax cuts enacted by the Colorado Legislature (when controlled by Republicans) give us better roads, better schools, higher-paying jobs or health care for all?

If you have lived in Colorado for 10 years or more, be honest: Have low, low taxes and the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights brought health, wealth and peace of mind to this beautiful state?

TABOR has only one positive feature: It empowers citizens to say "no" to unwanted tax increases. It also allows citizens to say "yes" when tax increases are needed to keep up with population growth and the people's needs and desires. This provision should be retained. The rest should be gutted.

Our lawmakers must balance the budget every year. The give and take, push and pull of the process, not to mention the independent spirit of our people, pressures our elected officials to abstain from fiscal foolishness. Anti-tax militants have had their chance. Their experiment in improving our quality of life by starving the public sector has been a failure.

I hope TABOR and the political philosophy that feeds it will soon become a distant memory.

I had a poster on my bedroom wall in college that read, "Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out." The shell game is over. It's time to admit we bought into a political ideology that did not deliver as promised. We have to move slow and steady. But we can no longer afford to "stay the course."

— Steve Bell
Colorado Springs

Thanks, Steve. We hear you.....