Eagle County Voices
Faith, family, finances & freedom
March 18, 2024
Eagle County Voices
What It’s About?
ECV is a space where information from several voices will be brought together for the good of a community who believes truth prevails.
Our goal is to prove that as parents, tax payers, and constituents we think for ourselves, and actually have more in common than we realize.
Mainstream media has attempted to make us believe we must hate each other because of the level of melatonin in our skin, our religions, and our political beliefs.
continued on page -6
Spring is in the Air
We have started this newsletter for a new and fresh perspective in our community. We all won’t agree, but we can agree to disagree having civil discussions from different perspectives. For too long one voice has dominated our community. We hope to provide another view for conversations.
The State of the State
and County
If someone would have said to me 10 years ago that someday Colorado would lead the country in auto theft, I would have chuckled and said, “No way,” but here we are.
Colorado has an ultra-liberal Democrat Governor and Democrats have dominating majorities in the Colorado House and Senate.
continued -- below
Our governments whether at the local, state or federal levels, seem to be more likely to vote along partisan lines versus doing what is right for the people and its community. They seem to think, no matter the basis of the legislation, vote the Party line for the sake of the Party. This is wrong regardless if it is the Left or the Right. There couldn’t be a more better example of partisan malfeasance than HB24-1092, a Bill introduced by Rep. Brandi Bradley from Douglas County.
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02/07
continued -- State of the State and County
Their collective agenda has given us:
- one of the highest crime rates in the country,
- the highest level of car theft in the country,
- decriminalized fentanyl with an over 1,000% increase in fentanyl deaths,
- the highest inflation rate in the country,
- a record number of Coloradans needing assistance with heating bills,
- the highest rate of bank robberies in the country,
- an alarming decline in real wages,
- housing crisis, and
- a Sanctuary State
Most States take pride in their Capitol, but not Colorado Democrats. The blocks around the Capitol are a war zone marked by boarded-up businesses, crime, drug abuse, homelessness and despair.
Democrats are taking funds, classrooms, and facilities away from Coloradans and handing them to illegal migrants who by design Democrats brought to this State.
There are many of us that have had (or know someone who has had) their car stolen at Denver International Airport. Never would I have imagined.
In the midst of this crime wave, Colorado Democrats are working feverishly to disarm law-abiding citizens, deprive them of their 2nd Amendment Constitutional rights and concentrate firearms in the hands of criminals (including illegals).
Oil and gas has been one of the best industries in Colorado but Democrats have made every effort to curtail the industry costing the State high-paying jobs and driving up the cost of gas and diesel for all of us.
In 2020, Democrats across the State repealed the Gallagher Amendment which gave homeowners protections against runaway property tax increases. Now in addition to coping with out-of-control inflation (rent, groceries, gas, and insurance), crime and congestion, Coloradans are getting hit with a 40% to 50% property tax increase. This increase will impact renters potentially in a disproportionate and greater degree.
Our children are at risk in this state. Recently, Idaho passed legislation providing for the death penalty for sex crimes against children. What did Colorado Democrats do at the same time?
Colorado Democrats weakened the penalties for the sexual exploitation of children in this State.
03/07
The State of the State is dismal.
The same poison that is destroying our State has overtaken our county. There is only one
elected Republican in Eagle County. All others, including the three County Commissioners, are Democrats.
Our beautiful valley is now overwhelmed with crime, drug overdoses, inflation, unaffordable housing, congestion, parking problems, and a troubled school district with declining enrollment. Let’s not even talk about the wolves.
The resorts we love (and for many the reason we live here) are overcrowded with parking nightmares. Ten years ago did you ever expect to have your bike, skis, or snowboard stolen at the mountain?
The county’s largest employer continues to sell more and more passes (mostly to people in Denver) and push their staffing, housing and parking problems on to the local community.
Unfortunately, there is no one representing the residents of this county by pushing back.
Your local Democrat representatives continue to allow your utility bills to skyrocket with no relief in sight. Democrats will tell you about their 2030 sustainability goal which is just code language for higher utility bills. They want to take away your gas appliances and make you pay for someone else’s electric car.
Everything is more expensive. No one is looking out for you.
The Democrat county commissioners (and candidates) will tell you they are investing for your future. Not one of them is an investor. None of them have any experience as an investor; they don’t even understand the basic concepts of budgeting, capital allocation, investing, and returns.
At a recent Democrat County Commissioner forum the candidates couldn’t wait to talk about all the ways they want to frivolously spend your increased property tax dollars. There was absolutely no concern for the impact of the tax burden on families in the valley which comes on top of very high inflation. Certainly, there was no consideration given to helping families by lessening the tax burden.
They are nothing more than spenders. It’s plain and simple.
Let’s talk about spending. According to the census, Eagle County’s population was 52,197 in 2010 and 55,731 in 2020. According to the county website, the population was approximately 53,000 in 2014 and in that same year county expenditures were $87.4 million for governmental and business-type activities. The county’s current population is approximately 56,000 and total expenditures by the county have skyrocketed to $280 million.
04/07
In 2024 expenditures are forecasted to be approximately $60 million more than revenues. Included in this 2024 budget is $30 million for an election center in a county where most people vote by mail.
In summary, in the last ten years, the county’s population has grown by 5% but the budget has TRIPLED (a whopping 220% increase). There is no fiscal discipline; it’s a free-for-all.
How many of you have gotten a 5% raise but been able to triple the amount of money you spend? Why is it that you have to live on a budget but your government does not?
Let’s talk about our schools. Recently the Colorado Department of Education gave the Eagle County School District a less than acceptable rating of “Accredited with Improvement Plan”.
Certainly it must be a money thing, right? Let’s examine. Eagle County School District student enrollment peaked in the 2016-2017 school year with about 7,000 students. In that year the school district had a total appropriated budget of $95.4 million and a general fund (i.e., operating budget) of $66.8 million.
Fast forward to the current school year. Enrollment has declined to 6,300 students but the total appropriated budget has ballooned to $172.5 million (and the general fund to $104.7 million)! The budget has nearly DOUBLED while enrollment continues to decline.
The school district is spending $27,000 per student. Do you feel like your child is getting a $27,000 a year education?
The School Superintendent and the Board of Education are all Democrats. School District enrollment continues to decline, academics are declining and the District is grappling with emotional and behavioral issues in the schools. Many parents have elected to home school.
Let’s go back to when Democrat Commissioners insisted that our school students continue to be masked up despite no scientific evidence that children were at risk. It was political. As a result, our children were denied a proper education and social experience which ultimately led to the emotional and behavioral issues impacting our schools and families today.
There were many in the county with real medical issues that needed an exemption from the draconian and unconstitutional Democrat vaccine mandate in order to work. Democrat Commissioners denied them that as well. Disgusting.
Let’s talk about the environment. Your Colorado House and Senate “representatives” (I use that term loosely) along with the Governor and Eagle County Democrats support building a high-speed rail line through our beautiful valley.
05/07
So the same people that are telling you they can change the weather if you pay more in taxes want to plow through and trample our environment by building high speed rail. Make it make sense.
Finally, Democrat Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Democrat judges on the Colorado Supreme Court are attempting to take political opponents off of ballots. This is something you would expect only in a third world country. It’s fraud and election interference.
Think about the millions and millions of taxpayer dollars wasted on this charade. Moreover, if they’re willing to commit that level of fraud to block a political candidate, just think about the opportunities to commit fraud with mail-in ballots.
We know Griswold sent over 30,000 voter registrations to illegal aliens in this State. Your own County Recorder sends out over 30,000 mail-in ballots with no actual knowledge of whether the recipients are dead or alive, a resident or nonresident, here legally or illegally, and possibly voting in this state as well as another state. There is no election day where registered voters appear in person with an ID to vote. In this county the election by law can go 8 days beyond the phony election date. It’s ridiculous.
Get involved as if your family, life and livelihood depend on it because they do.
Michael E. Wheeler, Columnist
continued -- Eagle County Voices: What It’s About
If Hollywood has ever brought us a message, it was in Hunger Games. It was each “Division” against another. Kill one another for entertainment as the elites grew fatter, richer, and more evil.
However, we believe the contrary is true. Most of us want nothing more than to be left alone. That is without government intervention telling us how we should live, raise our children, or what we should think. The government’s role should be limited. Not absent--but certainly limited!
What is necessary is that we realize we all, each and every one of us, are made in the image and likeness of God and He said, “It is good.” The struggle is not outside of us but within. When we realize such, looking inward the bad news bears, the media, will no longer have control or power over our outcomes in our neighborhoods, communities, or our Nation.
Do not let the words on these pages convince you of one way or another. If anything, question everything that is written. Let us return to a community that applies critical thinking in every aspect of our lives in the hope we will learn to have sensible, peaceful, and intelligent conversations not based on unsubstantiated reason or emotion.
06/07
continued -- HB24-1092 Anti-Child Trafficking Bill
Currently, An adult can buy, sell, or pander a child and receive only a slap on the wrist if caught. Probation!
Now I bet your mind went immediately to some of the more poorer, lower class communities in our State. You might have even thought of the recently produced movie, “Sound of Freedom.” However, this is not the case. Child trafficking is happening in middle-class, suburban Colorado.
To be fair, in researching this piece, Colorado Legislatures have passed bills to help protect children against sex and labor exploitation. What Rep. Brandley was trying to do is ensure mandatory sentencing for these predators was upheld.
HB24-1092 was a bi-partisan bill also sponsored by Representative Regina English a Democrat, and Senator Van Winkle, a Republican. More than 50 individuals appeared to support this Bill for stiffer sentencing. But the Bill was killed in Committee by eight democrats. (Don’t worry Democrats, we’ll be going after the Republicans in the near future. However, the Democrats are a super majority at this time, in Colorado. So it looks like you’re on the hook for Colorado’s rapid and rabid decline.
What Can You Do?
No matter how I look at this, I can’t see it being a partisan issue. Our children, regardless of creed, ethnicity, or even whether legal or illegal, it is despicable to exploit children either for sex or for labor.
If we haven’t all ready, let us begin to pay attention to what is going on in our children’s schools at a local level. Have an open door with our children listening before we shout. And, attend School-Board Meetings regularly. And never, ever allow the government make you believe they know your children better than you.
Pamela Chapman
07/07