Chickens In Your House

 Last night the Crystal River Caucus met at the Marble community church. The group was essentially divided into two camps: those who think it’s OK to restrict what people do on their own property, and those who believe in “live and let live”. The bulk of the evening was spent discussing the much-debated Special Geographic Area plan. In the past, it was presented to the Gunnison County Planning Commission. They rejected it.

The plan had a few minor revisions in it since the County Planning Commission rejected it, however, it is essentially the same document.

For example: Under the original document, if you didn’t finish building your house and get a certificate of occupancy within 17 years, the approximate cost of fines would be around $1,000,000.00. That’s correct. One million dollars. I’m not making this up! Based on my comment in the public meeting with the planning commission during the first proposal of the Special Geographic Area, the fine has a “reduced” price.

In last night’s meeting, I congratulated the caucus board for being so magnanimous. I said that it reminded me of Russia. When the Russians were oppressed after the Bolshevik Revolution, the government made farmers put animals into their houses. Horses, cows, pigs, chickens. Whatever people owned got to live with them in their homes. It showed the government’s power. After a year, the government told the people, “You can take the cow out of the house.” The relieved farmers were grateful. After another period of time, the government told them that they could take the pigs out. The farmers were quite grateful to the government. Finally, they were down to the chickens, by which time things seemed to be quite normal.

I told the caucus board, “In the same vein as the Russians, I thank you. By reducing the fine in your proposal, we are now down to simply having the chickens in our house.” They didn’t appreciate that comment.

There were comments thrown out to the board like, “How does limiting the size of houses ‘protect and promote the economy’ as shown in your reasons for the regulations”? Or the concerned citizen who rhetorically asked “Isn’t this document a vehicle for telling us what color to paint our houses, or anything else that you want to control?”

The caucus board then resorted to fear of the future. Oil rigs in our quaint little town were one of the first bogey men thrown at us. Then there was loss of tourist income. We don’t have many tourist businesses here. As a matter of fact, we don’t have many businesses at all. We don’t even have a gas station. Our natural beauty was in jeopardy. It was interesting to note that both low brow houses (the epitome of a small town) and recently built, large, well thought out houses, were all used as reasons to accept the Special Geographic Area proposal.

The Special Geographic Area document is full of legal faux pas, ridiculous assumptions (the county isn’t doing enough to protect natural beauty), socialism, government intrusion, innuendo, scare tactics, personal opinion, and illegal proposals. (The county doesn’t have jurisdiction on federal land which encompasses over 90 percent of the proposed area).

The Special Geographic Area proposal is not what this small town community needs. Trash it. Get on with current issues, not scare tactics about the future. Now let’s get government doing the things that it is supposed to be doing.

Copy of a Tax Protest Letter to Gunnison County

This is a copy of my tax assessment protest letter to Gunnison County, Colorado.

Mr. Jerry L. Begly

….

Marble, Colorado 81623

June 1, 2009

Gunnison County Assessor

Ms. Kristy McFarland

221 N. Wisconsin Ave. Ste A

Gunnison, CO 81230

Dear Ms. McFarland:

The purpose of this letter is to formally protest our 2009 Real Property Notice of Valuation. The properties in question are Lots _ and _, Filing _, ____ __ ____, Marble, Colorado. The taxes that we paid this year were too high for the following reasons:

  1. The “SQUARE FEET LIVING AREA” is 0, not ___. The house is unfinished.

  2. The Real Estate market has dropped in most places in Western Colorado, including neighboring counties and towns like Carbondale, and Aspen.

  3. We did not add $_____ worth of materials or labor into our house in the last two years!

  4. The entire economy of the United States is in a downward spiral in case you haven’t noticed. Increasing taxes is anathema to the recovery of our family and our country. You are one of the few people who can “stand in the gap”, and have the power to make corrective decisions.

  5. We are not getting even the most basic government services for the taxes that we DO pay. Although our house is located on a county owned road, in a platted subdivision, with over 24 houses in 3 miles, we get NO road maintenance, and NO snowplowing at all. Do you have any houses at all in Gunnison county that are in the same situation? Please list even one house, in your response letter.

     

    I’ve had to walk ________ miles to get to my car by 6 am because the county doesn’t plow the snow off of the road. I’ve hauled groceries and propane, uphill in a sled, many times because of lack of county road maintenance. The ambulance, EMS, fire truck, and police can’t get to my house because of unmaintained roads. Apparently, the only government agent who can make it to my house is the TAX ASSESSOR.

  6. In addition to the lack of road maintenance, there is NO public school provided by Gunnison county within 45 minutes of my house. If my kids attended public schools in Carbondale, the commute could take as long as one and one half hours, one way, in the wintertime!

     

With taxes increasing, and NO basic government services, the term “Taxation without representation” comes to mind. Our founding fathers were more than just a little bit upset over their version of “Taxation without representation.” I especially think of this while digging my car out of a snowbank late at night during a driving snowstorm; all because my tax dollars aren’t coming back to me in even the most basic of services: public safety.

I am writing this protest letter as a husband, and father of seven children.  Presently, I am laid off my job. The welfare state, as it now stands in America, is reprehensible. Therefore, we have taken NO government assistance up to this point. But with increasing taxes, unemployment, a bad economy, and the need to feed and house my family, maybe we will need government assistance in the future.

That would mean you, your family, and friends will end up supporting us. You might be able to sleep at night now, but you’ll remember me every time you open your wallet.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Jerry Begly

P.S. Visit my blogsite at www.jerrybegly.com for more tax reform info.

(This letter has been slightly modified from the original.)