Opponent Jerry Heimlicher has made several inaccurate statements during the campaign. As a public service allow us to provide the facts:

Jerry: Growth is a synonym for prosperity.

Fact: Prosperity is defined as economic well-being. Our experience in Colorado Springs over the past two decades would indicate growth is actually the opposite of prosperity, unless you’re a real estate developer. The most recent growth boom brought growing infrastructure backlogs, declining service levels, traffic congestion quadrupled, sales tax rates increased, and the city repeatedly faced budget crunches. Our city could not increase taxes fast enough to keep up with the costs of growth.

Jerry: We only have one pipeline bringing water from the western slope to Colorado Springs, so we need SDS in order to provide redundancy.

Fact: We actually have 3 pipelines providing western slope water to our city, 2 directly from the western slope, and one via the Arkansas River. We also collect water from the North and South Slopes of Pikes Peak, and our utility owns some wells which have been used to supplement our water supply during severe drought. If SDS is such a smart, solid investment for our community, why is the project being sold to us with inaccuracies and spin?

Jerry: The new water pipeline will actually produce hydroelectric power as the rushing water produces energy.

Fact: The new pipeline will require 148 Gwh of electricity annually to pump water 53 miles uphill from Pueblo Reservoir. There is no mention in any SDS material of the project generating electricity as the water flows uphill. One proposal for delivering water from the Arkansas River did have the potential to generate hydro power, but Utilities and this Council have rejected that proposal.

Jerry: Mr. Gardner was incorrect when he said we (the Utilities Board) voted to nearly double the Economic Development Corporation funding proposed by Utilities for the 2009 budget. We cut back on the funding.

Fact: Utilities proposed $20,000 of performance-based EDC funding which the board eliminated. Utilities proposed $100,000 of normal funding for the EDC, which the board increased to $192,000 (nearly double). This was exactly the amount EDC received in 2008, not a cut.

Jerry: “New home buyers pay for all of their streets, utilities, waste systems, parks and fire and police substations.

Facts:

Utilities: Utilities reimburses developers for the cost of installing gas lines. Developers pay only a portion of the cost of installing electric lines. There are no system development charges for gas and electricity. Such charges would help to cover the cost of new generation and transmission facilities made necessary by the new additions to the city. Instead, the cost of adding capacity is added into the utility bills of all utilities customers. Most of the cost of constructing the new SDS pipeline will be passed along to us in our utility bills, not collected in tap fees from the new subdivisions requiring SDS.

Police: Construction funds for police stations have not routinely been collected from new subdivisions. The cost of equipping new police stations is still not collected. There is some question about whether the city is consistently collecting enough to fully cover constructing and equipping fire stations.

Parks: New subdivisions have not been constructing and equipping new city parks. If/when they do construct and equip a park, they do not give the park to the city. Instead, ownership of the park is held by a metro district which borrows construction funds using tax-free bonds (state and federal govt.s subsidize the project by foregoing income tax). Then the new residents are taxed to repay the bonds. While this does shift some of the cost of parks construction to the new subdivisions, it creates a patchwork of parks with no consistent policies, and the residents of these subdivisions are reluctant to approve city-wide tax increases because they are already paying higher taxes. It would be more prudent to simply require the developer to dedicate the park to the city and fund constructing and equipping the park, without tax-subsidized financing.

Here is a list of costs and impacts that new subdivisions do NOT pay up front:

The need to increase capacity of regional roadway network
The need to monitor air quality and implement mitigation plans
The need to construct schools, libraries, and additional municipal facilities
The need for additional city buses, snow plows and street maintenance equipment
The need to mitigate damage to Fountain Creek from increased sewage and stormwater runoff
The need for additional regional parks and open spaces and facilities
The need for additional utilities infrastructure and capacity (partial)
The need for capital equipment in new police stations