The county proposes an additional sales and use tax of 0.10% for Emergency Services in rural areas. I am voting NO on Ballot Issue 1B, for the reasons stated above. Emergency services are important, But the commissioners have not explained why residents of the City of Boulder should pay for rural services, nor why such services cannot be paid for out of the $117,000,000 in increased revenues that the county is receiving, compared to 2019. It does not make sense for city dwellers to subsidize the increased cost of services provided to people living in the mountains.

Matt: Yep, another tax issue where pretty much all of the money will go to the unincorporated areas, even those with  residents who are quite wealthy. How about paying for ambulance services in the cities as well; after all, while city-folk do indeed use such services in the rural areas, the opposite is equally true (and, although it’s often a shock to the commissioners, we city folk are actually also in the county!).

Here in Boulder, we are going to spend lots of our money to eventually move to a city-funded ambulance service. In the unincorporated areas they should create a taxing district to do the same, not make all of us pay.

For the first five years of this tax, the theory is that most of it of will go toward a search-and rescue-facility, which is certainly needed, even if the county really should be able to fund it without a new tax. The tax drops to 0.05% after five years — mostly for (supposedly) rural ambulance services — and extends indefinitely.

But there is no guarantee of fully funding the search and rescue facility, and the ballot language is extremely broad, including everything from trailhead parking to rural fire departments (but, of course, not municipal ones).

I’d have no trouble supporting a small tax for capital expenditures for search and rescue, but this tax is too much for too long and too inequitably.

These opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Boulder Beat, its writers, contributors or editors