Guest commentary: Vote yes on Larimer County Issue 1A

Editor:

With Larimer County Issue 1A voters have the ability to replace an inadequate and expensive county facility in Loveland without raising any new taxes, by using money the county has already collected from a sales tax that has already expired.

Voters in 1997 approved a sales tax measure that built the Courthouse and Justice Center in Fort Collins and anticipated remodeling of the current Courthouse facility in downtown Loveland. This building on Sixth Street is crowded, inefficient and unable to accommodate today’s technology. There is no parking. There is no room for the Workforce Center, which must rent space elsewhere. Utility costs for operating this 40+ year old building are 25 percent higher than other county facilities. The roof leaks. People waiting have to sit on the stairs in narrow stairwells, sometimes while holding children. And the population of the Loveland area has doubled since this building was first occupied and the building cannot be enlarged to meet the need. In short, remodeling this failing building further would be a horrible waste of taxpayer money.

But the ballot language approved in 1997 did not anticipate nor provide for constructing a new facility, something that makes perfect sense today from both financial and customer service aspects

By voting for Issue 1A we can build a new facility that is more energy efficient, will have adequate parking and will have the workforce center and other county services in one convenient location.

The new building can be paid for by tax dollars already collected, utility savings, rent that the workforce center is now paying, and available county reserves. No additional taxes or fees or debt is required to give the citizens of the south half of the county a building that will work well today and into the future.

We urge you to vote Yes on Larimer County Issue 1A.

Steve Johnson, Tom Donnelly, Lew Gaiter III
Larimer County Board of Commissioners