You can’t make this up.
The spendthrift Aspen City Council has already run through the money in the affordable housing fund by paying multiples of what properties are actually worth. Now Council has raised the hilarity to a new level by trying to come up with another $23.5 million “to pay for extra costs that have crept up in recent months,” according to an uncritical and unquestioning story in The Aspen Times.
“The additional expenses will take the 2008 budget from $104.7 million to $128.2 million in expenditure appropriations,” according to the paper. “The additions to the budget are routine and occur a few times a year, said Assistant City Manager Bentley Henderson.”
Routine? When the Aspen budget exceeded $100 million for the first time a few years ago it was big news, but now a more than 20 percent increase in mid-year is considered “routine”? The City simply doesn’t have the money to pay for the creeping socialism it drinks like mother’s milk.
I also love the way the money is accounted for (or not) in the paper. The “$3.35 million in new requests” is delineated in great detail in the coverage, while the “$13.5 million in operational items and capital improvements, and $4.1 million in technical adjustments” is largely left to the imagination.
What’s $17.6 million among friends and relatives when it’s just on a “routine” matter?
As for the affordable housing mis-management, in the case of the lumber yard at the Aspen Airport Business Center, there are actually covenants in place that could prevent Council from building the affordable housing they so covet and have already overpaid for by a factor of three. The City Council hopes to solve that particular self-inflicted wound by issuing bonds to cover up to $200 million in planned affordable housing by using the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) fund to pay off the debt from the bonds. Needless to say, since they are out of money for affordable housing, the City Council has thrown the historical pay-as-you-go RETT philosophy right out the window.
At the Aspen City Council, funny money isn’t very funny any more.
But Comrade, it is for the good of the people. The leaders must have their caviar and vodka in order to make good decisions for the peasants.
For a breakdown of how your dollars are being spent by the Supreme Council click on the link. Of course it doesn’t include the cool 28 million increase….
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:9qUDdGiKXhsJ:www.aspenpitkin.com/pdfs/depts/45/2008section2.pdf+budget+for+aspen+colorado+2008&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
What is really amazing if that the voters actually are approving new taxes each year to pay for these idiotic programs like 12 million for storm run-off improvement. WHAT?? Are you frigging kidding me? And best of all, is that when you do the math that they give, it doesn’t add up.
For instance – “Aspen’s voters
approved in the November 2007 election a new $0.65 per $1,000 of taxable value property tax that will generate approximately $800,000 in 2008.” This new property tax is coupled with a new Council approved development fee for stormwater infrastructure improvements. In combination these two funding sources provide for over $650,000 in annual operating resources and over $12 million in future capital projects for in-town stormwater runoff quality improvements over the coming ten years. ”
Ok..so which is it 800k per year or 650k? And if I do the math, 12 million divided by ten years equals 1.2 million per year. So if they are spending only 650k per year, what is happening to the other 550k that is in the budget? Hmmmm…no wonder they have 28 million dollar changes mid year…these morons can’t do simple math.
I say its time for a federal inquiry into the spending and kickback schemes of these block heads. Maybe those rumors of offshore accounts are making more sense now…..
Long live the Motherland….Comrades!
What is worse is that down-valley communities such as Carbondale use Aspen as their example and goal. How in the world can Carbondale (or any other community) keep up with the budget and “honey do’s” as Aspen. Truly Aspen is in a league of its own and the sick thing about it is that the voters elect people to perpetuate this cycle. The social engineering instituted by Aspen is appalling, I don’t think it’s acceptable to think out of the box let alone think independently. Yuck…
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