Below, Rebecca’s report from Springs Taxpayers. These are very poignant observations and links to the things happening locally in COS. Click their links to be like Bereans, searching for yourselves, and consider supporting them!
Jay
Illegal Immigrants Thrive While Taxpayers Pay, Traffic Camera Racket, Big Changes May Be Ahead for Olympic City USA, and More!
Here are some of the stories we are following this week. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for up-to-the-minute news.
Colorado ranks as the 6th most expensive state to insure a home. This directly impacts home affordability.
Bureaucrats in state government, many of whom believe they are qualified to micromanage every aspect of your life, completely ignored reports of problems occurring at the Fremont County funeral home, where dead bodies were left to rot. This event is leading to calls for even more laws and oversight, even though they fail spectacularly at enforcing laws and providing oversight. Our bureaucratic class is an exorbitantly expensive, one-trick pony of failure.
UCHealth is reporting a significant increase in visits from illegal aliens bused here from the “sanctuary city” of Denver. Officials are reporting almost $600 million in uncompensated or under-compensated care being delivered. Guess who gets to make up for this shortfall?
El Paso County Sheriff Joe Roybal wants the state to allow him to work with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), in order to protect the community. Democrats recently passed legislation forbidding county sheriffs from coordinating with ICE, because illegal aliens, criminals, and vagrants are super-citizens now.
In Denver, Mayor Johnston will reduce funds to the DMV and Parks departments to support illegal aliens. He’s calling it “shared sacrifice”, which puts a smiley face on the whole mess.
Denver expects to pay nearly a million in taxpayer dollars just to feed illegal immigrants. Nearly 40,000 illegal immigrants, so far, are living for free off of taxpayers. Illegal immigrants, who are not citizens of this state or this country, are benefiting from taxpayer-funded benefits more than homeless American veterans.
Colorado Springs City Council passed a resolution declaring that our city is not a sanctuary city. Many protesters showed up to oppose this largely symbolic resolution.
This week in common sense, a recent national poll shows a solid majority (57%) of voters agree that taxes and government spending should be cut by 50% or more. Also, fifty-two percent (52%) of voters believe government should do much less, and allow people to work things out voluntarily among themselves. This is music to our overtaxed and overregulated ears.
Shakedown: Colorado Department of Transportation traffic safety cameras are raking in big money along I-25 and C-470. Around $11 million has been collected so far. Also, if you want to dispute your camera ticket, they make that difficult to impossible to do. The government mafia dislikes disputes over money they believe is theirs to begin with.
Boulder is also rolling in other people’s money, thanks to their red-light and speed enforcement cameras, purchased from money taken from those same other people who are robbed by the cameras. It’s a racket, folks.
Also in government racket news this week, bureaucrats in Jefferson and Arapahoe Counties are intentionally using large amounts of taxpayer money to hire consultants, who happen to be far-left political insiders, to find ways to steal more money from taxpayers. When we tell you that they see you as their personal ATM and that they believe your earnings are rightfully theirs, it is not a hyperbolic statement.
Your mailbox will soon contain your 2024 primary ballot. Ballots are expected to be mailed this week.
What should the future of the Fishers Canyon Open Space in Colorado Springs be? You can have a say. Watch for a community survey to be posted soon.
Owners of short-term rentals are, rightly, pushing back at the legislative attempt to arbitrarily increase their property taxes. It’s a racket, folks.
Democrats in the Colorado Legislature are trying to kill oil and gas drilling forever in the state. They want to make their “green energy” fantasy into reality by force.
Governor Polis and others are still pushing their collectivist Front Range Rail choo-choo train boondoggle, despite clear evidence that people prefer choosing their own transportation in America.
Would you support Colorado Springs unloading the Olympic City USA branding and saving $2 million in taxpayer dollars annually? The taxpayer money pit, known as the Olympic Museum, is reportedly a “ghost town”, and many Olympic sports teams have moved to North Carolina. This trend may signal the end of Olympic City USA in Colorado Springs.
If you would like to help support us in our mission as government watchdogs by becoming a Newsletter Sponsor, we are offering two sponsorships for each weekly newsletter, at the nominal cost of $100 each. Funds raised from these sponsorship opportunities will help us to keep looking out for taxpayers.
Here are some upcoming meetings in the area. We hope you can attend one or more! If there are other public meetings you’d like to see announced here, please drop us a line. We are happy to include them in an upcoming newsletter. These might be government-related, candidate, or elected official meetings. Thanks!
Colorado Springs City Council Meetings
Monday, February 26, 10:00 a.m.
Colorado Springs City Council Work Session
107 N. Nevada, 3rd floor
Live stream link here
Agenda not yet posted
Tuesday, February 27, 10:00 a.m.
Colorado Springs City Council
107 N. Nevada, 3rd floor
Live stream link here
Agenda not yet posted
El Paso County Board of County Commissioner Meetings
Tuesday, February 20, 9:00 a.m.
El Paso County Board of County Commissioners
Centennial Hall
200 S. Cascade
Live stream link here
Agenda not yet posted
Tuesday, February 27, 9:00 a.m.
El Paso County Board of County Commissioners
Centennial Hall
200 S. Cascade
Live stream link here
Agenda not yet posted
Colorado Springs Utilities Board of Directors
Wednesday, February 21, 1:00 p.m.
Utilities Board of Directors
Blue River Board Room
Plaza of the Rockies, South Tower, 5th Floor
Live stream link here
Agenda
View the full Colorado Springs City Council meeting schedule here to see upcoming meetings.
View the full Board of El Paso County Commissioners meeting schedule here to see upcoming meetings.
View the full Colorado Springs Utilities Board meeting schedule here to see upcoming meetings. Please also follow CSU on their Facebook Page and on Twitter.
Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Since most of the City and County board and commission meetings are not televised or recorded, we are trying to remedy that. We now have a camera and tripod for volunteers to check out for future meetings.
If you have a tip about a story in the Pikes Peak region that you aren’t seeing reported, let us know. We will see what we can find out.
How to Contact City and County Officials:
City Hall
107 N. Nevada Avenue
Colorado Springs CO 80903
(719) 385-5986
Contact City Council
Mayor's Office
30 S Nevada Avenue, Suite 601
Colorado Springs, CO 80901
(719) 385-5900
Contact Mayors Office
County Commissioners
200 South Cascade Avenue, Suite 100
Colorado Springs, CO 80903-2202
Phone: (719) 520-7276
https://www.elpasoco.com/contact-us/
Thank you!
Rebecca
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