By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
September 25, 2007
They call themselves the “Yes for Libraries Committee.” But it seems they are for much more than that.
The glossy brochure that arrived in Denver mailboxes over the weekend doesn’t just ask for a vote to build three new branch libraries and fix up various others. It urges recipients to “Vote Yes on Issues A through I” in November.
Thing is, the brochure never says how much “Issues A through I” will cost.
What, did the backers of $550 million in new bonds, plus a tax increase that will add $63 a year to the taxes on a $255,000 home think folks didn’t care?
Did they think folks weren’t going to ask?
The attempted manipulation of voters by the Yes for Libraries Committee is so transparent that it insults the readers’ intelligence.
I love the Denver Public Library. Most folks I know love the Denver Public Library. We might even be willing to vote to issue $51.8 million in new bonds to build three new library branches and fix up various others.
But please don’t try to play Denver’s taxpayers for fools.
Please don’t act like costs matter so little that they don’t even have to be mentioned.
“I believe in being up front with voters in terms of cost,” said Denver Councilman Charlie Brown.
Added Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz: “I’m stunned that they didn’t put any money amounts in the brochure. The people promoting this are saying: `This is a package, Trust us.’ Saying how much money is involved is a sign of respect. It treats voters like adults. Incorporate your sales pitch with full disclosure.”
Faatz doesn’t care how anyone votes. She cares that they make informed choices on nine separate ballot issues.
Lumping things together and skipping details is disingenuous at best. A brochure without cost figures is just plain insulting. A brochure that says, “Ballot Issues A through I will include much needed upgrades and improvements to The Denver Public Library system” is just plain wrong.
In fact, a person can vote only for ballot issue 1C and take care of the new branch libraries and upgrades to existing libraries. Issue 1A increases taxes, a portion of which would go to ongoing maintenance of libraries.
But bond issues 1B, 1D, 1E, 1F, 1G, 1H and 1I commit no money to libraries whatsoever. To suggest that they do builds no trust.
Here is the breakdown of the bonds voters are being asked to approve Nov. 6 and what they will pay for.
The tax increase is separate and will provide an ongoing maintenance fund for a number of city projects.
These are the kinds of details that need to be in every brochure sent out during the run-up to the Nov. 6 election.
The Yes for Libraries Committee has not been straight. It has promoted a vote for $550 million in bonds when it only needs roughly $52 million. But the committee didn’t even think it was necessary to include the $52 million figure in its marketing brochure.
A brochure that includes no money figures for a bond issue and tax increase is a brochure that lies by omission.
It is an appeal that makes you feel like you’re being played.
Worst of all, it is a campaign that invites suspicion as much as it secures votes.
Councilman Doug Linkhart doesn’t think the Yes for Libraries Committee was trying to mislead anyone. But even Linkhart sees how it might help citizens to know that the bond issues are separate and how much money is on the line for each.
Linkhart knows something else.
“People,” he said, “don’t like to be fooled.”
10 users commented in " Bond Backers Skip Costs "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackback“Being fooled” doesn’t seem to me to be the issue here. Those with working brains will not be fooled. They might, however, be either insulted or made suspicious by the omission of perfectly relevant and necessary figures, and suspicion regarding funding the Denver Public Library really does need is not something I’d think the “Yes for Libraries Committee” would want to encourage.
Someone on the Committee, or perhaps the whole Committee (if this is the sort of thing such a committee sees and votes on as a group), made a serious mistake. I hope it doesn’t end up costing the Denver Public Library in November.
“Lies of omission” Hmmmm. How do YOU know how much it costs? Could it be that there have been several articles and websites that go through all of this information? Of course, I’m sure you slogged through the acutal ordinance yourself
Are you “lying by omission” by ommitting the fact that this information has been made available to voters by other sources?
Also, this information will be distributed to the voters in the TABOR disclosure booklet. Do you know about this booklet? Each campaign puts all of the information in there so that the voters (especially the well-read off year voters) can make an informed choice.
I guess you chose to omit that fact as well.
By omitting the cost of the new libraries and all the other stuff the city wants to build on our tax money is simply the wrong way to get the voters to vote yes.
Honesty is best. Even if the information is available somewhere else….not everyone is going to take the time to “research the cost” from every other source available.
This is a major mistake…and one that i do not take lightly.
Tempest in a Teapot doesn’t get it. It is the wrong way to do business….especially when you are trying to sell some beach front property in New Orleans.
Certainly voters do have a responsibility to learn more about these important measures, but the proponents who are pitching them to us also have a responsibility to give us clear and accurate information. Hopefully, their next efforts (and we know there will be more) will more clearly lay out each item in the package, what we get and what it will cost us.
I plan on voting for all of them. I’ll happily put signs in my yard and let my friends and neighbors know they should vote for these as well. I support everything in the A-I package. These are investments in our community. And if we want a great city, we have to be willing to pay for the services that we need.
Now the proponents do need to make a clear, compelling and honest case to the voters for why they should support the measures.
When asked to make a donation, we don’t write a blank check. Neither should we when we “donate” our taxes. I’m not about to go searching for the information either. Let the information come to the voters, not the other way around.
Denver will never be a great city, Denver
is a corrupt cow town run by the East Denver
Cartel, that is about 12 influential familes.
All the tax dollars in this city won’t change
that. I recently talked to a union rep from
Boston here to unionize (or try to unionize)
Denver Water. He said Denver has a spider
web network of friends and reletives in
public office like no other city in the
country. These people own the courts,
elected officials and state legislators.
Denver is a joke. But go on and kid
yourself. Great city? NO. Corrupt city.
Hey Hammond…some jackass from BOSTON tells you that WE have a corrupt political culture here in Denver? and you listened? Think about it…BOSTON!!! No corruption and “spider webs” there, lol. “Big Dig” ring a bell? amongst others…
Denver is a great city.
Denver IS a great city. My grandparents homesteaded in this state and I LOVE Colorado and I LOVE Denver. I’ve visited several large cities in the past few years and Denver is by FAR the best. The only one that could even hold a candle to Denver is Phoenix because it’s warm in the winter.
Denver was great when it was a “cow” town and it is even greater now. I love hopping on the light rail to see the Rockies. We have so many amenities.
It does have lousy schools and sometimes overzealous cops, as does any large city.
Re your spider webb of corruption, are you talking current or past administrations?
The independent side of me would like to hear more re your cartel theory though. Could you give more specifics? I’m not much for Boston people because they talk funny. And all they can think about is unionize.
But I’m ready to dust off my cowboy boots and kick yer a** out of my town if you don’t like it here. Just kidding of course. We welcome all people, even those who talk funny.
Seriously, Mr. Hammond! Don’t just throw down those huge generalizations and run off. If you want anyone to take you seriously, tell us who, what, when and where. I’m from the South where we know about corruption and certain families running things. I’ve seen some patronage here — some officials explain that as hiring people they can trust — and a few tiny problems. But can you really say, for example, that our officials are corrupt?? Prove it. I think you’re full of it.
One of the items is: “Lowry fire station (new) 6,200,000″
Why build a new fire station for $6.2M USD?
Why staff it for 40 years at some huge cost? $2+M per year?
Why not just buy an insurance policy and hand people a check when their house burns down?
After all, these are new houses and the likelihood of a house catching on fire has to be pretty low.
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