Steve Pomerance

What will happen to us chickens if our lot is redeveloped? “We are chickens who live in a family’s backyard and supply them with eggs, to help them deal with rising costs. If the politicians have their way, their lot may be redeveloped with ADUs or condos or whatever. What will happen to us? And what will happen to the garden that they have so carefully nurtured that supplies them with clean, locally grown food?” “I’m a mouse that lives in the weeds at the edge of a flood channel. If the lots owned by people upstream are turned into buildings and concrete, making almost all the land surface impervious to water, flood levels could dramatically increase and the city’s flood control work will become inadequate, and my burrow will be washed out. Where will I go then?” “I’m a wise old owl and have suffered from the ever-increasing air pollution due to excessive traffic growth. I wonder how the humans I live near will feel when their taxes go up to cover RTD’s increasing costs of supplying m...

As the Great Recession continues to impact local governments, we are seeing the effects of the various shortcuts that have been taken in the way we pay for services. When prices do not accurately reflect costs, serious budget problems can occur. Here are some examples. The City of Boulder is considering raising fees for recreation facilities and classes so as to more accurately reflect the real costs. Since these fees were previously subsidized, when sales taxes drop, shortfalls occur. Increasing fees seems a legitimate solution, but this economic necessity may not match the socially desirable outcome of having more people participate in these activities. The city is also looking at raising water rates. The rates, which are now pretty close to being cost-based, have actually induced conservation, which what was the intent. But the effect is that the utility is now running an operating deficit. Why? The reason is that most of the costs the utility incurs are fixed, like labor and ...