Colorado Springs Cuts Into Services

A taste of things to come -

This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.

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.

City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won't pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.

"We're the second-largest city, and growing, in Colorado. We're in trouble. We're in big trouble."

The deep recession bit into Colorado Springs sales-tax collections, while pension and health care costs for city employees continued to soar. Sales-tax updates have become a regular exercise in flinching for Mayor Lionel Rivera.

Note that last bit, government costs are soaring but the people that have to pay the bills are offered no such protection?
But why would such a thing happen? Well it appears the locals grew a pair and told the government to buzz off -

Voters in November said an emphatic no to a tripling of property tax that would have restored $27.6 million to the city's $212 million general fund budget. Fowler and many other residents say voters don't trust city government to wisely spend a general tax increase and don't believe the current cuts are the only way to balance a budget.

Oh the humanity! What, the government can't hire 20% more workers at 30% more pay? What are we to do!?! Here's a great line -

"If a playground burns down, I can't replace it," Schroeder said.

Now how many playgrounds have ever burned to the ground in the city? I'm willing to bet zero.

The Real Effect
This is exactly why socialism/communism failed repeatedly throughout the 20th century and will fail again in the United States. When you remove property rights and institute a collective form of ownership, human nature dictates that almost all people will gravitate towards less and less productivity. We have not had real property rights in this country for decades, if not a century.