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HomeMy WebLinkAboutresolution.council.059-96 ~ . e . RESOLUTION NO. 5"i (Series of 1996) A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ASPEN, COLORADO, EXPRESSING ITS OPPOSITION TO THE STATEWIDE INITIATIVE (AMENDMENT 11) THAT WOULD SUBJECT MOST PROPERTY OWNED BY NONPROFIT AND RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS TO AD VALOREM PROPERTY TAXATION AND TO STATEWIDE INITIATIVE (AMENDMENT 13) WHICH WOULD LIBERALIZE THE PETITION PROCESS. WHEREAS, the Colorado voters will be asked to vote on legislation (Amendment 11) that would subject most property owned by nonprofit and religious organizations to ad valorem property taxation; and WHEREAS, municipalities and nonprofit organizations are natural allies in working toward the adequate delivery of social, medical, cultural and recreational services; and WHEREAS, most Colorado citizens have benefited from the services provided by one of our 10,000 nonprofit and religious organizations; and WHEREAS, this massive tax burden will force many of our churches and charities to close, or to drastically cut services effecting every Colorado community; and WHEREAS, demand for nonprofit services will not disappear, rather the demand will be redirected to local governments creating even greater stress on municipal budgets; and - - e ",.' WHEREAS, the Aspen community has always been supportive of out nonprofit sector which provides essential community services and is the life-blood of Aspen's spirit; and WHEREAS, the Aspen City Council is deeply concerned about the process used to place poorly worded and mis-understood ballot questions on the ballot via the initiative process; and WHEREAS, another ballot question, Amendment 13, seeks to weaken and liberalize the ways in which petitions can get on the ballot even further; and WHEREAS, if Amendment 13 were to pass many administrative and quasi-judicial decisions would be subject to a vote thereby creating chaos and grinding government to a halt; and WHEREAS, Amendment 13 radically reduces the number of signatures required for local government initiative and referendum elections and weakens the anti-fraud procedures that now invalidate signatures resulting in a much smaller number of individuals needed to suspend local government action. WHEREAS, Amendment 13, by delaying ordinances from taking effect until nearly 3 months after post-enactment publication, and by e e . severely limiting citizens' ability to require special elections, would significantly impair local governments' ability to respond promptly to the desires of their citizens; and WHEREAS, Amendment 13 will increase taxpayer costs to cover the preparation, distribution and validation of numerous petitions and the administration of elections resulting therefrom; and WHEREAS, Amendment 13 would promote "tyranny of the minority" by allowing small bans of petitioners to stall government actions that are supported by a majority of citizens; and WHEREAS, Amendment 13 is so ambiguous and badly written that thousands oftaxpayer dollars in attorney fees and court time will be required to determine what it actually means; and WHEREAS, the initiative and referendum process is already alive and well in Colorado as demonstrated by the number of propositions that regularly appear on state and municipal ballots. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ASPEN, COLORADO, THAT: the City Council of the City of Aspen opposes Amendment 11 and urges voters to vote no on November e e e. ~,\ . '0[1 5, 1996, on Amendment 11 which subjects property owned by many nonprofit and religious organizations to ad valoerm property taxation and Amendment 13 which reduces the signature requirements for the petition process. Dated: d2~ /~, 1996 r;:::: I~~- JoM S. Bennett, Mayor I, Kathryn S. Koch, duly appointed and acting City Clerk do certify that the foregoing is a true and accurate copy of that resolution adopted by the City Council of the City of Aspen, Colorado, at a meeting held ~cIB: 1996. ~4-~ Kathryn S. och, City Clerk