It is rare that a city has enough funds to cover every need of its population. The division of a city’s budget and funds among its various programs and needs seldom goes without controversy. There are usually aspects that are looked over or neglected, leaving many people unhappy. A city’s legislature must create a budget that negatively affects the least amount of people. One thing that cannot be looked over or forgotten when creating a budget is education.

Every home and business owner in Colorado pays a property tax which goes towards public services for the state, such as education. A budget that is determined by the state governor and legislature allocates a portion of funding for education, and for each school district in the state. For the 2004-2005 school year, Denver Public School received funds in the amount of $1,385,047,912. Although nearly one and a half billion dollars appears to be a large sum of money, it has proven to be insufficient in covering the needs of an entire school district that serves around 75,000 students. The schools in DPS are not performing well, and the education of students is suffering.

For the upcoming school year, a 6 to 8 percent cut is expected for state education funding. Currently, 57 percent of students that attend Denver Public Schools are attending a school that fails to meet district performance standards. This means that the students attending these schools are not doing well on tests, such as CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program), and in class. The schools are not catering well enough to the students’ needs for them to be academically successful. In order for these schools to improve, they need more funding to hire better teachers, use better materials, and put better programs in place.

Teaching is one part of the problem plaguing Denver Public Schools. In a Denver Post article, Jeremy P. Meyer writes about the substandard quality of teachers in the school district. He writes that “about 55 percent of Denver teachers believe teaching quality in the district is substandard.” The majority of teachers themselves believe that the teaching quality could be improved upon. It is a necessity for DPS to better its teaching quality, because it is teachers that are the ultimate deciding factor in whether or not students fail or succeed. A teacher, even one that teachers in the most desperate of school systems, has the ability to give students academic success.

It is a child’s experience in school that prepares him or her to enter the world as an adult. A school should teach not only math and reading, but also how to be successful. A student that does not do well in school has a lesser chance of doing well in college or having a job. Denver Public Schools, and other suffering school districts nation-wide, need better funding in order to create higher achieving students. Education is not something that can be neglected when creating a budget, as it is what leads to success in life.

TABOR: A Hindrance to the Colorado Budget

The United States was formed around of a few, central ideologies which our way of life today would not be possible without. One of which is taxation without representation, which arguably is why Americans first rebelled against Great Britain. This value is one that is central to our nation, so it will never change. However, the interpretation of this ideology has been taken too far in the state of Colorado with the bill known as TABOR.

TABOR, or the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and it was founded by Colorado Springs Republican, Douglas Bruce. According to the Colorado budget’s webpage, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights has a few main functions: “[Colorado] require[s] a public vote on all tax increases and new government debt”, as well as limiting “the amount of tax revenue raised by state and local governments in Colorado; year-to-year increases in revenue amid economic growth may not exceed the combined rates of population growth and inflation.” Simply put, taxes cannot be raised in Colorado unless the taxpayers vote to raise their own taxes. On the Colorado budget website, they described TABOR’s main function as: “limiting government’s growth and giving voters veto power over tax hikes and bonded debt.” As a taxpayer, this bill sounds like a better way to handle taxes, but just below the surface, is TABOR the best allocation of resources for Colorado?

Democratic Colorado Governor Bill Ritter told the Denver Post that TABOR is “the most backward-thinking ballot measures this state has ever seen." TABOR is under scrutiny because it takes the power to change taxes away from the government, thus, government funded programs will lose funding. Ritter said that TABOR would lead to the: “shut down colleges and prisons, increase class sizes, put thousands of teachers out of work and prevent the repair of unsafe roads and bridges. If these measures pass, the state could never again support building another public school, library or rec center." He argues that since taxpayers will not raise their own taxes, Colorado will not create enough revenue to fund the basic needs to the state’s citizens. Denver Post Columnist, Glenn Hendricks, brings up the point that “Serious conversations around a 4-day school week are occurring in many of our districts.” On the other hand, Colorado Republican Dan Maes states that he sees the: “Tax cuts as part of our overall strategy for the future after we cut the size of government and increase revenues via energy and small-business success first.” However, not all republicans agree with Mae’s argument. Republican, Scott McInnis, opposes this bill for similar reasons to Governor Ritter. Getting away from the politics, the numbers show that tax revenue (altered for inflation and population change) has dropped significantly. In 2002, there was a revenue shortfall of 15 percent, just ten years after TABOR was originally passed. Is a 15 percent deficit that big of a deal? Well, as already discussed, TABOR could “[hinder] government’s ability to deliver basic services over the long run.” What has not been discussed is the larger problem at hand: the Colorado budget deficit.

Currently, the Colorado budget deficit is estimated to be at 1.5 billion dollars. Although Governor Ritter has been attempting to close this gap by passing budget cuts around 3.2 million dollars, it is still estimated that the budget will be short half of a billion dollars in 2011. Future budget deficits will lead to more cuts from public services.

If Colorado wants to become a stronger state economically, the legislators must not cut funding from schools or libraries. This is because these public goods allow the citizens to increase their “human capital” which will make them more efficient/valuable workers to the economy. Therefore, a better option for the state of Colorado would be to give back the power of taxation to the government, so funding to public goods does not need to be cut too far. Although, some might argue that TABOR allows taxpayers more “representation”, but I would remind them that the founding fathers gave the power to tax to the government, and this was put into our country’s constitution.

Demand to Expand

Have you ever needed a ride to a Nuggets game? A ride to Beta or LoDo? Or wanted to take a date to a swanky sushi bar on Pearl St., BUT you didn’t have a car? Public transportation can take you there. As students in the Denver metro area we have all used the Light Rail at least once but our city’s goal should be to make it a primary mode of transportation in the future.

I am far from a Harvard-bred economist and I am not a Berkeley environmentalist but I do know that public transportation is a more cost effective and much cleaner alternative to our current SUV’s and sprawling highways. Based on Denver’s fiscal realities, the FasTrack’s expansion is currently a tremendous obstacle that may serve as a means to lower unemployment and preserve the natural state of Colorado while encouraging economic growth years down the track.

FasTracks is a major project to expand Denver’s metro rail service. As stated on their site, “The RTD FasTracks Program is a multi-billion dollar comprehensive transit expansion plan to build 122 miles of new commuter rail and light rail, 18 miles of bus rapid transit, 21,000 new parking spaces at light rail and bus stations, and enhance bus service for easy, convenient bus/rail connections across the eight-county district.” The north metro area will receive a two new commuter rails, the west will receive a light rail and a commuter rail. Expansion will occur to other rail services already in place. Union Station will be renovated and serve as the transportation hub of the rail services. If all of these new tracks, expansions, and management are going to move forward RTD FasTracks must employ many workers over the next three to seven years (projected completion date between 2013 and 2017) and while this employment will only be for a number of years, it will assuredly help alleviate the pressures of unemployment in our city. If you plan to live in this great city after graduation, how do you plan to get to work or where would you like to open your business? The proposed program will produce expansion and economic benefits to surrounding businesses and will allow for development of more commercial sites. Just think of opening your own café across from a new rail stop and taking advantage of its flow of commuters.

If you are concerned that public sentiment for public transportation will not support your café, think again. In an article by Kate Herman entitled “Numbers,” she explains that nationally public transportation has worked tremendously well saying, “In 2007, Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation – the highest ridership number in 50 years, according to the American Public Transportation Association. The group notes that every $10 million invested in a local transit system generates $30 million in business sales.” Take for example Twin Cities’ Hiawatha light rail system that opened in 2004. Its popularity has been quieting opponents with ridership rapidly increasing and nearly 8,000 multifamily units being built along its routes. This kind of expansion is obviously advantageous for a cities economy. It slows urban sprawl and keeps the sense of community a city should hold at its core. Denver resolve budget issues with the revenues generated.

Now I asked you earlier how you enjoyed yourself on the light rail and used it for transportation to recreational events but where is your future heading and how do you want to see Denver develop? I am originally from Chicago and have witnessed ugly and polluted areas centered on highway expansion and I refuse to see Denver become the same. According to Kate Herman in the aforementioned article, four million gallons of gas are not used in the United States every day because of public transportation. Not only will we be spending less money to travel to work or play, but our environment will thank us. The beautiful western landscape will be preserved and miles of congested highway will begin to move again. In an article by Kirk Johnson of the New York Times, he quotes a University of Denver associate and executive director of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, James van Hemert, as saying, “There could be an anti-government feeling, people saying, 'Let's let the market solve our problems with hybrids and electric cars,'” however, our budget crisis is now and our state deserves to be preserved. Therefore as a student or resident of Colorado, I call upon you to take advantage of our already expansive public transportation system and show our city we want FasTracks to get moving quickly.