Give us your TABOR refunds, says Lakewood

Guest Post by Alex Plotkin

A city that for over a decade has not only refused to do economic development (in a true sense), but has lost jobs and is now planning to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize developers, under the guise of “economic development.”

A city that, for over a decade, has done nothing to improve the path conditions along Alameda Avenue, in Ward 4.  Nor have any improvements have been made to alleviate the traffic increases at Union and Alameda.

To be fair, the city did spend an untold amount of money to add “roundabouts” on Green Mountain Drive.  Perfectly placed to create a road hazard with any amount of snow.

A city that has been lecturing the citizens about how the citizens should be planting trees, to cool the city, you know?  The same city that is now allowing an-out-of-state developer to destroy a much-beloved park at Belmar, while chopping down dozens of decades-old trees.

A city where for years now the recreational fields at Carmody Park are in an awful shape.  Fields where parents actually pay a fee to have their children play.

They “fixed it” this year:

And this is a park that has favorable political sunshine on it.

A city, where instead of maintaining the hiking and biking trails damaged by runoff, a sign is placed, telling you to be careful.  You should see what the head of parks gets paid, though.

A city, where the City Council goes in to executive sessions, to decide on even more perks for a City Manager, while the needs of thousands of residents are ignored and the city is millions over budget:

A city, where the citizens are lectured about how they should not be driving, to save the environment and stuff.  While the city has failed to champion any sort of real economic development, so that thousands of people would not have to drive out of the city for work.

A city, where the citizens are told not to drive, while the aforementioned City Manager gets paid for mileage, just to go to work.  A City Manager that lives in the city.  Gets paid to drive to work.  Do you?

Here is an exert from City Manager’s contract:

The taxpayers, it seems also get to pay for the privilege of the department heads using the medical benefits, after they leave.  Do you get a perk such as that with your employer?

The City Manager also has a retirement perk that seems more geared for a CEO than a “public servant”.

In just one year, the city spends about $100,000,000 just on staff alone.  To be fair, some of that is police, which the city’s council has been hamstringing from even enforcing the laws that exist.

Here are the compensation numbers, just for the “department heads” (as of two years ago – you may want to see the updated ones for 2024):

As you walk around the neglected parks and drive on Kipling where the road surface has been in need of repair for years and most of the lights are out on some of the sections, may be think about asking the city what has it done with the tens of millions it receives every year, before even getting to the TABOR refunds?  Perhaps start off by looking at the expenditure trends of the planning and city manager’s departments?

So when Lakewood asks for your TABOR refund (for parks and police of course), ask the city – why are millions spent on just the planning and the city manager’s offices alone and why is the city millions over budget every year?  The cuts should have happened years ago, with money saved then be used for the parks, police, economic development and road and infrastructure maintenance.  But, instead, the city is now spending thousands of dollars of your money for marketing research to see how to manipulate the residents in to allowing the city to keep millions more from the TABOR-mandated refunds.

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