Steve Pomerance

The City of Boulder is working on a wish list of projects that it may ask the taxpayers to fund in an upcoming election. What is also needed is an equivalent effort to look at alternatives to general tax increases as a way to fund public infrastructure. For example, the suggested $43.2 million for street improvements could be funded by imposing parking fees in all employment areas. Boulder has something like 60,000 in-commuters. And we are on the edge of having a very serious traffic congestion problem, caused to a significant extent by this in-commuting. Parking fees would raise needed funds, and at the same time encourage car-pooling and buses. The city could charge private lots a fee on a per space basis, which would be reduced if parking charges were put in place. Such fees, together with an Adequate Public Facilities ordinance like Fort Collins has, that requires new development to pay to maintain transportation levels of service, could eliminate the need for future tax increa

On the GMO front, the county commissioners are faced with sorting through lots of facts and opinions, but I have not heard much about the widespread use of certain herbicides leading to the evolution of “superweeds.” According to “The Growing Menace From Superweeds,” Scientific American, May 2011, weeds are developing resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp and other herbicides. This process parallels the evolution of bacteria to resist certain antibiotics, and is accelerated by widespread use. Companies like Monsanto may make a profit by creating a GMO that resists a herbicide, and then promoting both this genetic variant and the herbicide. And farmers may do better in the short term, although even this is under debate. But the GMO/herbicide combo seems counterproductive in the long term, and that is what will ultimately count. In the utility arena, Xcel has filed for a rate increase that, according to reports, will raise rates about 4 percent, nearly a $5 milli