{"id":1319698,"date":"2020-04-29T16:08:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T22:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=996064"},"modified":"2020-04-29T16:08:05","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T22:08:05","slug":"citizen-telegram-letters-helping-crfr-clarifying-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/citizen-telegram-letters-helping-crfr-clarifying-information\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizen Telegram letters: Helping CRFR, Clarifying information"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"691\" height=\"443\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/10\/PI-CT-logo-small.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Rifle Citizen Telegram icon graphic\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/10\/PI-CT-logo-small.jpg 691w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/10\/PI-CT-logo-small-300x192.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 691px) 100vw, 691px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Please help Colorado River Fire Rescue<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I received my ballot for Issue A, Colorado River Fire Rescue asking for a mill levy increase, I wondered why they needed more money. So I did my research.<\/p>\n<p>First, I read the literature that showed up in my mailbox. It surprised me to find that Rifle had not seen a tax increase for emergency services in 25 years, and Silt\/New Castle hadn\u2019t see one for 16 years. That speaks to good economic times and responsible fiscal management by our special districts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Second, I went to the County Assessor\u2019s website and looked at the mill levy assessment abstracts. Sure enough, our local fire department\u2019s mill levy is less than most of the fire districts in the county, and half as much as the mill levy for our comparable neighbors, Glenwood and Carbondale.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Typically, I don\u2019t vote \u201cyes\u201d for tax measures until I do my research. All things considered, I think the fire district is due for some community support to get the funding they need to protect us, and I\u2019ll be proud to vote \u201cyes\u201d for Issue A.<\/p>\n<p>Raelyn Westley, New Castle<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Clarifying fire rescue information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To Mr. Cliff Dick in Rifle, I\u2019d like to express my agreement and make a correction to an erroneous interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;Regarding Colorado River Fire Rescue\u2019s mill levy ballot issue, Mr. Dick stated that he believes the district needs the additional funding. I strongly agree with you on this. Based on the TABOR notice I received, it\u2019s clear that passing this mill levy won\u2019t even provide the same level of revenues the district had in 2016, and our communities have experienced considerable growth since then, with more to come. The 2016 budget was just under $10.5 million, while the proposed 2020 budget is only $8.2 million. $2.2 million of the 2020 budget came out of nearly depleted district reserves, which are enough to support the budget in that manner for only two more years (if you\u2019re wondering, I requested a copy of the budget from the district administrative director). If the community chooses to pass this mill levy, we\u2019ll be able to restore funding to 2016 levels, adding the $4.7 million projected in the TABOR notice to the current $6 million tax revenue.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Where I disagree is your interpretation that the term \u201cannual\u201d in the ballot language will give the district the ability to increase taxes each year as they see fit. It doesn\u2019t mean that. It simply means that the mill levy adjustment will be permanent, occurring each year moving forward, and providing sustainable funding to meet the emergency needs of our growing and diverse community. In reality, it\u2019s likely the district will still have to face slowly receding revenues in the future as complex TABOR\/Gallagher laws interact, industries ebb and flow, and property values fluctuate. If you\u2019ve attended the community informational meetings on this issue, you\u2019ll know that these factors are the primary causes of the district\u2019s drastic revenue drops.<\/p>\n<p>That ballot language was subjected to a vigorous vetting process by attorneys, consultants and elected officials to ensure that the legal meaning is as I\u2019ve described. If you\u2019re interested in knowing the details, contact the fire chief. That\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Starr, Rifle<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/opinion\/citizen-telegram-letters-helping-crfr-clarifying-information\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please help Colorado River Fire Rescue When I received my ballot for Issue A, Colorado River Fire Rescue asking for a mill levy increase, I wondered why they needed more money. So I did my research. First, I read the literature that showed up in my mailbox. It surprised me to find that Rifle had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1319698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-06 05:14:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}