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What smaller government looks like.
February 6, 2010 1:32 AM

Colorado Springs is a very conservative town that requires a referendum to raise taxes. As this article points out, they recently rejected a proposed property tax increase that would have helped cover a budget gap, after the recession lowered sales tax revenue by $22 million since 2007. So now, voters will see how good individuals are at protecting the common good.

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops -- dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled:

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.

Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

It's soooo easy to just lower taxes. It's the benefits from those taxes that are taken for granted. Sure, everyone something for nothing, right? But over at The Inverse Square, Thomas Levenson writes how anti-tax, small-government supporters never seem to comprehend that services that we all pay for - together - through taxes, "include a bunch of stuff essential for a sound economy and any chance of achieving what is commonly thought of as the American way of life."

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