[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: County Sustainability (SST) Tax on the ballot in 2014

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Cowles, Macon

Kara, I had to leave the City Council meeting before the discussion of the City's position vis-a-vis a County SST tax on the ballot in 2014. I met with one of the Commissioners about what the County would like to accomplish, and I expressed these ideas to her.
 I would now like to add them to what you heard last night from other Council Members.


1) At present, I am unpersuaded that the burden of an added County tax is worth the SST gains that might flow from funding for new programs, or extending existing programs.


2) If the County is going to propose a tax, I think it should be for human services (including housing for the homeless), not for SST. Human Services is where there is a pressing need, with the burden now falling unfairly on the City of Boulder to provide
 additional resources for people in need across the County. The City currently spends 10 X as much per capita on social services as any other city in the County. The City, therefore, needs more help in providing for people from across the County who are in
 need.


3) If the County is going to go with a SST tax, then it should direct the money at a sector of GHG emissions that is now inadequately funded and could benefit from focused attention and funding: Mainly, transportation improvements. This is an area where
 additional services and programs are needed to drive mode split, and reduce emissions attributable to the transportation sector. It is also an area where Boulder City programs and other cities' programs have been inadequate to the task, and where coordinated
 cross county and regional extensions make a lot of sense. It is an area, in short, where there is much more legitimacy to a County's program than there would be to, say, a SST tax where the need is not well defined by the Commissioners, taking into account
 available polling data. There is another reason why focused attention on transportation makes sense at the County level: mainly, the County already has very good staff--transportation planners--and so there would be no need to create a new department to wisely
 spend money from the additional tax. 


I don't blame the Commissioners for wanting to increase their presence in the SST arena. But the most important project with the greatest potential impact on emissions in the County is MuniZ--there is not even a close second. People in the City of Boulder
 are already shouldering a large burden to see this through to completion, and should not be further burdened with a County tax that takes a bite out of emissions here and there. On the other hand, a county wide transportation initiative focused on increasing
 transportation choices and driving mode split would be a new initiative addressing unmet needs, and really could make a substantial contribution in moving us toward SST--much more so than a patchwork of energy efficiency, energy concierge, loan assistance,
 weatherization and other programs run out of a County SST office.














Thanks for the opportunity to provide a response on this item.


Macon Cowles
Boulder City Council Member





1726 Mapleton Ave.








Boulder, Colorado 80304
CowlesM at bouldercolorado.gov
(303) 447-3062
(303) 638-6884