Comments on: Watchdog group: City on path toward ‘financial crisis’ http://csbj.com/2011/02/17/watchdog-group-city-on-path-toward-financial-crisis/ Sat, 18 May 2013 02:50:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Cliff Joyner http://csbj.com/2011/02/17/watchdog-group-city-on-path-toward-financial-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-55433 Cliff Joyner Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:05:52 +0000 http://csbj.com/?p=39649#comment-55433 I have been doing a job in Woodland Park, and traveling there several days a week from Monument. In the round trip, I regularly go through 4 and 5 speed traps. The traps are maned by both state and Colorado Springs Police. I personally would feel perfectly safe if I went through one speed trap every three trips. I feel we should save salary, non salary benefits and retirement cost by laying off 1/3 of the police force. I suggest we instruct the remaining officers to fight crime not concentrate on speed traps.

]]> By: Christopher Colvin http://csbj.com/2011/02/17/watchdog-group-city-on-path-toward-financial-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-55414 Christopher Colvin Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:06:39 +0000 http://csbj.com/?p=39649#comment-55414 The city is facing what the tax paying citizens have been having to deal with since the first recession (Tech bust) in 2000. Many individuals have not been able to replace their pre-layoff salaries, and many are just scraping to get by.

What astonished me was the widening of GoG between Agilent and Intel when those companies were facing huge cutbacks as well as the failure of Worldcom. So rather than cancelling the project, which would have shown good stewardship of OUR tax dollars, the city went ahead with the widening, on a road that didn’t need it.

Pensions? I wish I had one to fall back on. Why not pay the city workers the cash value of their pensions today, and allow them to use that money to purchase a Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit annuity with them money? That simply transfer the risk to a private insurance company who is in the business of providing cash flow streams to individuals who purchase their products.

Fire the poor performers. Pay them the cash value of their pension and let them find a job in the private sector.

COLORADO SPRINGS! Diversify your primary industry. We have the military, defense and high tech. The United States doesn’t make anything anymore. We farm it out to Asia. How can we as a city attract some sort of manufacturing here?

My two cents. It’s worth what you paid for it.

Chris Colvin

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