Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Ross. Thanks for spending some time with me.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We've done a lot of national, international stuff so far.
Today I want to bring it back to a little
bit of local here because we are Koa after all,
we cover Denver, we cover all of Colorado. And joining
us to talk about multiple interesting issues in our capital
city of Denver is Kevin Flynn, Denver City councilman, former
(00:23):
journalist and one of the small number of mostly rational
people on the Denver City Council.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hi, Kevin, good to talk to you again.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well I didn't expect that last one. Thanks. How you
doing that? By the way, By the way, happy Colorado
Day today? Is it Happy Colorado Day? Yes? It is
August first?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Is that the day we were founded?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
No, it's the day that we were admitted to the
Union officially eighteen seventy six. A lot of newcomers might
not realize we are called the Centennial State because we
were admitted to the Union in eighteen seventy six, the
centennial year of the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And I don't want to, you know, like date you
or anything, but back when you like right, but back
when you were covering that for the Rocky Mountain News.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Like what was it like that day in eighteen seventy six, Yes,
in eighteen seventy six.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, thanks, thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Okay, all right, let's talk. Let's talk.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I actually have at least four things I want to
talk to you about, so let's get going. So number
one is a ballot measure that I actually don't know
if it's already definitely going to be on the ballot
or if they're trying to get signatures.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So you can tell me that would ban animal.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Processing facilities aka slaughter houses in Denver, but it really
is an effort to go after one particular business. So first,
is it definitely on the ballot, and then let's talk
about what it is and what you think of it.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yes, it is. It's on the ballot, along with a
ban on fur to some extent, but the ban on
the slaughterhouse ban. When I first heard about it, frankly,
I was I was a little bit a prize that.
I thought, do you mean to tell me that a
special interest group can come into Denver and target one
(02:09):
well run business in the city of Denver, put it
out of business and throw people out of work? I thought,
I can't be true, But apparently it is, and it's
on the ballot. I think it's very unfair to target
Superior farms. It is the only animal processing plant in Denver.
It's been here for seventy years. And as more I
(02:30):
looked into it after I heard about this, the more
I was offended at the people coming into Denver to
try to throw out one of our good businesses. Number
one Ross It is employee owned business. The people who
work there have a stake, have an equity stake in
the ownership of this. Number two. And this is what
(02:52):
I didn't know this.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It is.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
One of the few facilities that process halal certified meat
for the Islamic market, so the processing of the animals
is done in a very humane fashion according to Muslim tradition.
And also the facility was designed in consultation with Temple
Grandin up At, CSU of world renowned animal welfare activist.
(03:22):
She spent her entire life in this area. It's just
you know, if you don't want me to eat me,
just tell me you don't want me to eat me.
But don't pretend that this is about animal welfare, because
all this will do is it will destroy a locally
sourced a company that provides a local source of food
(03:43):
for the Denver market also one of the largest LAMB
processors in the nation, and it will end up being
a net negative for the environment because I think the
second most likely source to replace Superior Farms lamb products
in the Denver market would be from New Zealand, which
(04:03):
is the second largest processor. That makes no sense to
me at all.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So many good points there, And I don't think I
mentioned this to listeners at the time, but I had
a young woman on the show who represents the side
that's that's pushing this thing, and she made a comment about,
you know, Denveright should be able to decide what they
want in their city. And I didn't know at the time,
and therefore I didn't mention at the time that that
(04:31):
lady who was in studio with me is not from
Colorado's She's a hired gun. She's a hired gun from
New Orleans who has come up here to try to
push Denver Rights around, to get to try to get
Denver Right to destroy the jobs of other Denver Rights.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
But well, go ahead, Kevin.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Kid yourself. Don't kid yourself for us. This isn't about
just Superior Farm, right right, This is about a larger move.
You know, I can see through my windshield, I can
see beyond my hood ornament to see where this is headed.
It's not about superior farms. Frankly, I grow a little
weary of people running campaigns because I'm not making the
same choices in my life as they make in theirs. Yes,
(05:11):
you know, if they don't want to eat lamb, fine,
don't eat it, but don't destroy this seventy year old,
mostly well employee owned But most of the workers there
are Latino people of color, and these are good jobs. Now, cynically, cynically,
the initiative says that we must then provide job retraining
(05:34):
for the people who will lose their careers. The arrogance
of that is just stunning. We don't like what you
do for a living, sir, so we're going to shut
down your job and we're going to retrain you in
something else. That's the arrogance of that is just beyond
my comprehension. The fact is, ross, You're right, Denver has
(05:56):
easy ballid access. We have a low signature threshold, so
often become a test bed for these would be a
nascent national movements. And that's just a fact that we
have to deal with. I just think this is the
wrong solution. It's wrong for the environment, it's wrong for
the local food market, and it's wrong for these workers.
(06:18):
Superior Farms has an excellent record and it's just a
shame that they're being targeted this way.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And the woman who was on with me said, I
don't remember if it was on the air or off
the air, but she said, look, our goal is to
get everybody, or make everybody to stop eating me. And
I said to her, like, why don't you just spend
a bunch of money on a marketing campaign explaining to
(06:45):
people why they shouldn't eat meat? Right, It's one thing
to encourage people to make a choice. It's another thing
to tell people we're going to make it so that
you don't have a choice. But she was not apologetic
about it in the least of course.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Not of course, And I find that really sad, to
tell you the truth, because Superior Farms overall is a
positive influence in our community. It's a positive influence. It's
well run, it's well managed, it's employee owned. And I
just hope that people can see through this campaign and
not throw these people out on the street jobless. It
(07:22):
also has a magnifier effect. It's not just one hundred
and sixty workers there, but it's the other folks who
also serve that facility. There was a study recently that
up to twenty seven hundred other jobs could be at
stake by shutting this down and shifting this production to
New Zealand. I can't imagine all the GHG emissions that
(07:43):
come from getting our meat sent into King Supers or
Safeway from New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Indeed better from Denver. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I had the primary author of the Colorado State University
study that you're referencing on the show about a month ago.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So yeah, we'll one last on this, and then I
want to move on to a couple other topics with you.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, generally this isn't This is meant as an
observation rather than an insult. Most people don't have very
much information when they're voting on political stuff. You can
get to them with enough money spent on marketing and
all that, but a lot of people have only heard
about let's say a local ballot measure one or two times,
or maybe not at all before they get to vote
(08:25):
on it, and then they read this thing and it
looks like, oh, we're being nice to animals. And I
do think there's a decent chance, especially in a place
that's as kind of left wing squishy as Denver, where
the hey, we're going to be nice to animals, this
thing could pass in a way that it might not
in Welld County.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Well yeah, and the fact is it's the reverse of that.
This does not help animals at all.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
No, but I'm making a political point. I'm not arguing
with you on the merits.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I understand that. Okay, let me get let me talk
to that. This November is going to be a huge ballot.
We are going to have so many ballot you know,
not only do we have President at the top of
the list, but you have everything down to all these
local issues and state issues, and it's really easy for
people to get lost in the lack of detail. You know,
(09:18):
let alone try to decide on every single item that's
going to be on the ballot in front of city
council alone. We're sending three, four or five issues as referrals. Right. So,
I remember an election ross a couple of cycles ago
where the Denver clerk and recorders sent out a ballot
that had three full legal sized or at least legal
(09:41):
sized deep ballot sheets printed on both sides. And you know,
it's like, how do people knowledgeably vote on all of
these issues? So they'll see slogans, they'll read the titles,
they'll see the word slaughterhouse and think, oh my god,
you know, terrible, when in fact it isn't all right.
(10:03):
How do you think that gets to the to the
grocery store right right? So please please people vote no
on this. Keep let's keep these people.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Employed absolutely, and we're going to keep talking about it
as we as we head into the election. All right,
I got several minutes left and a few topics I
want to get to, so let's go through them kind
of quickly. You seemed to be one of the members
of the city council most skeptical about Mayor Mike Johnston's
proposed half percentage point sales tax increase for so called
(10:33):
affordable housing. It seems like a council committee may have
pumped the brakes on that. What do we need to
know about the status of that and what's your take
on it?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Now?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
It's held in committee right now because other members have
significant questions about how the estimated one hundred million dollars
a year would be allocated among the different programs that
could address our need. And I don't deny the need
to build more housing in this town. People are tired
of all the construction, But if you don't have more
(11:06):
housing construction, you're going to get very, very tired of
your kids and your grandkids not being able to afford
to live here. So I acknowledge that I think it
has a good chance to get out and get on
the ballot once these questions are answered. But I wouldn't
bet my own house on it. For me, Russ, there
is no question that they could answer that would change
(11:28):
me to a yes vote. And it's not that I
don't think that there's a sustainable there's a need for
a sustainable, reliable source of funding for more affordable housing
in the city. My newsletter just went out today, my
digital newsletter, and my lead note in it explains this.
When this came up, and the earlier one about Denver Health,
(11:50):
I was exploring with a few people, including one of
the city attorneys, the notion of putting a charter amendment
on our ballot that would put a cap on Denver
sales taxes have the highest city only sales tax in
the metro area four point eight one percent. Combining with
the state and RTD and the Scientific Cultural District, we
are at eight point eight one percent. These two measures
(12:12):
alone would put us to nine point sixty five percent.
You only see that in the resort towns, right, You
shouldn't see that in the central city in the metropolitan area.
So I wanted to see if there could be a
lid in the charter that if something else came in,
like a year from now, and they wanted to put
a special sales tax on the ballot, they would have
(12:33):
to propose what other special sales tax would be reduced
to do that. What made me, what put me in
mind to do that was last year or so, about
a year ago, the college subsidy sales tax, they call
it Prosperity Denver. They came into city council and asked
us to amend the citizen initiative that had been passed
(12:53):
to allow them to spend the money on more things,
because you know what, the point zero eight percent sales
tax they were collected was raising more money than they
knew how to spend. So they thought, well, let us
spend it on such things as maybe students who don't
live in Denver.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Oh my gosh, rather than proposing reducing the tax rate.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Exactly unbelievable. That's my approach on that. So that's the
reason I'm voting no on it, not because I don't
think there's value.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, there's also denverse.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
But we need to have this conversation about putting a
ceiling because otherwise we're gonna have people come in year
and in a year after.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well remember, sorry to interrupt you, we just have a
few minutes left. So part of the reason that we
might need what you're talking about is that Denver voters
have demonstrated themselves to be perennial fiscal masochists, and there
yet to find a tax they will not impose on themselves,
and they'll do it until such a point that Denver
(13:51):
is not a growing place anymore, and we might be
getting there. So I think, as somebody who's looking to
protect Denver, unfortunately, you need to protect Denver from voters
who are dumb enough to elect people like Candy Sea
Tobaca and Tay Anderson, although at some point even Denver
rights got smart enough to.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Unelect those fools. So you got an uphill battle.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well, and I look at it practically too. I represent
southwest Denver, and then you look at a map of
my district. I have seven neighboring jurisdictions, and it's very
easy for anybody from any of my neighborhoods to go
over to Lakewood or Little Toon or a Wood or
Sheridan or Southwest Plaza, you name it and get a
lower sales TATH sure for their goods, especially their major goods,
appliances and things like that. Right, So absolutely, I look
(14:36):
at it from a leak each standpoint. When I look
at the sales TEP.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
That makes good sense. All right, I got about ninety
seconds left. This may be something you and I disagree on,
but I'd like to understand where it is right now.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Is there going to be a.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Change to the charter or a ballot measure to change
the charter to allow Denver government workers to collectively bargain,
which even FDR knew was a bad idea, Yes, there.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Is, that's on the ballot already. I support letting the
people decide.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Why do you support allowing government workers to collectively bargain
when everybody knows it's just a you know, to wolves
and a sheep discussing what's for dinner, and the taxpayers
are the sheep.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Well, I think there are plenty of provisions in the
charter measures people took the time to read it that
would show you that there's very little risk of that.
But when workers have the right to collectively bargain, I
think it can improve conditions for everyone.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
All Right, we'll agree to disagree on that one.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You and I will disagree.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Okay, last quick thing, thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
You wrote a piece for the Denver Post about ranked
choice voting, which is very interesting piece. I'm wondering whether
you are writing about ranked choice voting because there's a
local propose for that for Denver, or is this about
the larger discussion for the thing that might be coming
up on the state ballot.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Both. Really, there's none active in Denver right now, but
there is a group in Denver that's been been planning
to do that, and I just wanted to preemptively state
that if rank choice voting were to pass in Denver,
we may never have a mayor elected ever again by
a majority of the vote.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
We'll have to dig into that in more detail as
we get closer to either a local vote or a
statewide vote.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
But I did find your piece very interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Kevin Flynn is, as I noted, one of the few
mostly rational members of the Denver City Council. I would
call him really rational except that he's okay with with
government workers collectively bargaining. But no, Kevin Flynn is seriously
one of the good guys, and he and he protects
us day in and day out from the crazies. And
I'm grateful for your work as always, and grateful for
(16:52):
your time today.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Mostly thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Thanks Kevin. We'll talk again. We'll be right back on
KO like
I'm Ross. Thanks for spending some time with me.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We've done a lot of national, international stuff so far.
Today I want to bring it back to a little
bit of local here because we are Koa after all,
we cover Denver, we cover all of Colorado. And joining
us to talk about multiple interesting issues in our capital
city of Denver is Kevin Flynn, Denver City councilman, former
(00:23):
journalist and one of the small number of mostly rational
people on the Denver City Council.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hi, Kevin, good to talk to you again.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well I didn't expect that last one. Thanks. How you
doing that? By the way, By the way, happy Colorado
Day today? Is it Happy Colorado Day? Yes? It is
August first?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Is that the day we were founded?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
No, it's the day that we were admitted to the
Union officially eighteen seventy six. A lot of newcomers might
not realize we are called the Centennial State because we
were admitted to the Union in eighteen seventy six, the
centennial year of the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And I don't want to, you know, like date you
or anything, but back when you like right, but back
when you were covering that for the Rocky Mountain News.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Like what was it like that day in eighteen seventy six, Yes,
in eighteen seventy six.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, thanks, thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Okay, all right, let's talk. Let's talk.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I actually have at least four things I want to
talk to you about, so let's get going. So number
one is a ballot measure that I actually don't know
if it's already definitely going to be on the ballot
or if they're trying to get signatures.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So you can tell me that would ban animal.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Processing facilities aka slaughter houses in Denver, but it really
is an effort to go after one particular business. So first,
is it definitely on the ballot, and then let's talk
about what it is and what you think of it.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yes, it is. It's on the ballot, along with a
ban on fur to some extent, but the ban on
the slaughterhouse ban. When I first heard about it, frankly,
I was I was a little bit a prize that.
I thought, do you mean to tell me that a
special interest group can come into Denver and target one
(02:09):
well run business in the city of Denver, put it
out of business and throw people out of work? I thought,
I can't be true, But apparently it is, and it's
on the ballot. I think it's very unfair to target
Superior farms. It is the only animal processing plant in Denver.
It's been here for seventy years. And as more I
(02:30):
looked into it after I heard about this, the more
I was offended at the people coming into Denver to
try to throw out one of our good businesses. Number
one Ross It is employee owned business. The people who
work there have a stake, have an equity stake in
the ownership of this. Number two. And this is what
(02:52):
I didn't know this.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It is.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
One of the few facilities that process halal certified meat
for the Islamic market, so the processing of the animals
is done in a very humane fashion according to Muslim tradition.
And also the facility was designed in consultation with Temple
Grandin up At, CSU of world renowned animal welfare activist.
(03:22):
She spent her entire life in this area. It's just
you know, if you don't want me to eat me,
just tell me you don't want me to eat me.
But don't pretend that this is about animal welfare, because
all this will do is it will destroy a locally
sourced a company that provides a local source of food
(03:43):
for the Denver market also one of the largest LAMB
processors in the nation, and it will end up being
a net negative for the environment because I think the
second most likely source to replace Superior Farms lamb products
in the Denver market would be from New Zealand, which
(04:03):
is the second largest processor. That makes no sense to
me at all.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So many good points there, And I don't think I
mentioned this to listeners at the time, but I had
a young woman on the show who represents the side
that's that's pushing this thing, and she made a comment about,
you know, Denveright should be able to decide what they
want in their city. And I didn't know at the time,
and therefore I didn't mention at the time that that
(04:31):
lady who was in studio with me is not from
Colorado's She's a hired gun. She's a hired gun from
New Orleans who has come up here to try to
push Denver Rights around, to get to try to get
Denver Right to destroy the jobs of other Denver Rights.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
But well, go ahead, Kevin.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Kid yourself. Don't kid yourself for us. This isn't about
just Superior Farm, right right, This is about a larger move.
You know, I can see through my windshield, I can
see beyond my hood ornament to see where this is headed.
It's not about superior farms. Frankly, I grow a little
weary of people running campaigns because I'm not making the
same choices in my life as they make in theirs. Yes,
(05:11):
you know, if they don't want to eat lamb, fine,
don't eat it, but don't destroy this seventy year old,
mostly well employee owned But most of the workers there
are Latino people of color, and these are good jobs. Now, cynically, cynically,
the initiative says that we must then provide job retraining
(05:34):
for the people who will lose their careers. The arrogance
of that is just stunning. We don't like what you
do for a living, sir, so we're going to shut
down your job and we're going to retrain you in
something else. That's the arrogance of that is just beyond
my comprehension. The fact is, ross, You're right, Denver has
(05:56):
easy ballid access. We have a low signature threshold, so
often become a test bed for these would be a
nascent national movements. And that's just a fact that we
have to deal with. I just think this is the
wrong solution. It's wrong for the environment, it's wrong for
the local food market, and it's wrong for these workers.
(06:18):
Superior Farms has an excellent record and it's just a
shame that they're being targeted this way.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And the woman who was on with me said, I
don't remember if it was on the air or off
the air, but she said, look, our goal is to
get everybody, or make everybody to stop eating me. And
I said to her, like, why don't you just spend
a bunch of money on a marketing campaign explaining to
(06:45):
people why they shouldn't eat meat? Right, It's one thing
to encourage people to make a choice. It's another thing
to tell people we're going to make it so that
you don't have a choice. But she was not apologetic
about it in the least of course.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Not of course, And I find that really sad, to
tell you the truth, because Superior Farms overall is a
positive influence in our community. It's a positive influence. It's
well run, it's well managed, it's employee owned. And I
just hope that people can see through this campaign and
not throw these people out on the street jobless. It
(07:22):
also has a magnifier effect. It's not just one hundred
and sixty workers there, but it's the other folks who
also serve that facility. There was a study recently that
up to twenty seven hundred other jobs could be at
stake by shutting this down and shifting this production to
New Zealand. I can't imagine all the GHG emissions that
(07:43):
come from getting our meat sent into King Supers or
Safeway from New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Indeed better from Denver. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I had the primary author of the Colorado State University
study that you're referencing on the show about a month ago.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So yeah, we'll one last on this, and then I
want to move on to a couple other topics with you.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, generally this isn't This is meant as an
observation rather than an insult. Most people don't have very
much information when they're voting on political stuff. You can
get to them with enough money spent on marketing and
all that, but a lot of people have only heard
about let's say a local ballot measure one or two times,
or maybe not at all before they get to vote
(08:25):
on it, and then they read this thing and it
looks like, oh, we're being nice to animals. And I
do think there's a decent chance, especially in a place
that's as kind of left wing squishy as Denver, where
the hey, we're going to be nice to animals, this
thing could pass in a way that it might not
in Welld County.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Well yeah, and the fact is it's the reverse of that.
This does not help animals at all.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
No, but I'm making a political point. I'm not arguing
with you on the merits.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I understand that. Okay, let me get let me talk
to that. This November is going to be a huge ballot.
We are going to have so many ballot you know,
not only do we have President at the top of
the list, but you have everything down to all these
local issues and state issues, and it's really easy for
people to get lost in the lack of detail. You know,
(09:18):
let alone try to decide on every single item that's
going to be on the ballot in front of city
council alone. We're sending three, four or five issues as referrals. Right. So,
I remember an election ross a couple of cycles ago
where the Denver clerk and recorders sent out a ballot
that had three full legal sized or at least legal
(09:41):
sized deep ballot sheets printed on both sides. And you know,
it's like, how do people knowledgeably vote on all of
these issues? So they'll see slogans, they'll read the titles,
they'll see the word slaughterhouse and think, oh my god,
you know, terrible, when in fact it isn't all right.
(10:03):
How do you think that gets to the to the
grocery store right right? So please please people vote no
on this. Keep let's keep these people.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Employed absolutely, and we're going to keep talking about it
as we as we head into the election. All right,
I got several minutes left and a few topics I
want to get to, so let's go through them kind
of quickly. You seemed to be one of the members
of the city council most skeptical about Mayor Mike Johnston's
proposed half percentage point sales tax increase for so called
(10:33):
affordable housing. It seems like a council committee may have
pumped the brakes on that. What do we need to
know about the status of that and what's your take
on it?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Now?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
It's held in committee right now because other members have
significant questions about how the estimated one hundred million dollars
a year would be allocated among the different programs that
could address our need. And I don't deny the need
to build more housing in this town. People are tired
of all the construction, But if you don't have more
(11:06):
housing construction, you're going to get very, very tired of
your kids and your grandkids not being able to afford
to live here. So I acknowledge that I think it
has a good chance to get out and get on
the ballot once these questions are answered. But I wouldn't
bet my own house on it. For me, Russ, there
is no question that they could answer that would change
(11:28):
me to a yes vote. And it's not that I
don't think that there's a sustainable there's a need for
a sustainable, reliable source of funding for more affordable housing
in the city. My newsletter just went out today, my
digital newsletter, and my lead note in it explains this.
When this came up, and the earlier one about Denver Health,
(11:50):
I was exploring with a few people, including one of
the city attorneys, the notion of putting a charter amendment
on our ballot that would put a cap on Denver
sales taxes have the highest city only sales tax in
the metro area four point eight one percent. Combining with
the state and RTD and the Scientific Cultural District, we
are at eight point eight one percent. These two measures
(12:12):
alone would put us to nine point sixty five percent.
You only see that in the resort towns, right, You
shouldn't see that in the central city in the metropolitan area.
So I wanted to see if there could be a
lid in the charter that if something else came in,
like a year from now, and they wanted to put
a special sales tax on the ballot, they would have
(12:33):
to propose what other special sales tax would be reduced
to do that. What made me, what put me in
mind to do that was last year or so, about
a year ago, the college subsidy sales tax, they call
it Prosperity Denver. They came into city council and asked
us to amend the citizen initiative that had been passed
(12:53):
to allow them to spend the money on more things,
because you know what, the point zero eight percent sales
tax they were collected was raising more money than they
knew how to spend. So they thought, well, let us
spend it on such things as maybe students who don't
live in Denver.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Oh my gosh, rather than proposing reducing the tax rate.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Exactly unbelievable. That's my approach on that. So that's the
reason I'm voting no on it, not because I don't
think there's value.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, there's also denverse.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
But we need to have this conversation about putting a
ceiling because otherwise we're gonna have people come in year
and in a year after.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well remember, sorry to interrupt you, we just have a
few minutes left. So part of the reason that we
might need what you're talking about is that Denver voters
have demonstrated themselves to be perennial fiscal masochists, and there
yet to find a tax they will not impose on themselves,
and they'll do it until such a point that Denver
(13:51):
is not a growing place anymore, and we might be
getting there. So I think, as somebody who's looking to
protect Denver, unfortunately, you need to protect Denver from voters
who are dumb enough to elect people like Candy Sea
Tobaca and Tay Anderson, although at some point even Denver
rights got smart enough to.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Unelect those fools. So you got an uphill battle.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well, and I look at it practically too. I represent
southwest Denver, and then you look at a map of
my district. I have seven neighboring jurisdictions, and it's very
easy for anybody from any of my neighborhoods to go
over to Lakewood or Little Toon or a Wood or
Sheridan or Southwest Plaza, you name it and get a
lower sales TATH sure for their goods, especially their major goods,
appliances and things like that. Right, So absolutely, I look
(14:36):
at it from a leak each standpoint. When I look
at the sales TEP.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
That makes good sense. All right, I got about ninety
seconds left. This may be something you and I disagree on,
but I'd like to understand where it is right now.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Is there going to be a.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Change to the charter or a ballot measure to change
the charter to allow Denver government workers to collectively bargain,
which even FDR knew was a bad idea, Yes, there.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Is, that's on the ballot already. I support letting the
people decide.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Why do you support allowing government workers to collectively bargain
when everybody knows it's just a you know, to wolves
and a sheep discussing what's for dinner, and the taxpayers
are the sheep.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Well, I think there are plenty of provisions in the
charter measures people took the time to read it that
would show you that there's very little risk of that.
But when workers have the right to collectively bargain, I
think it can improve conditions for everyone.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
All Right, we'll agree to disagree on that one.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You and I will disagree.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Okay, last quick thing, thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
You wrote a piece for the Denver Post about ranked
choice voting, which is very interesting piece. I'm wondering whether
you are writing about ranked choice voting because there's a
local propose for that for Denver, or is this about
the larger discussion for the thing that might be coming
up on the state ballot.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Both. Really, there's none active in Denver right now, but
there is a group in Denver that's been been planning
to do that, and I just wanted to preemptively state
that if rank choice voting were to pass in Denver,
we may never have a mayor elected ever again by
a majority of the vote.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
We'll have to dig into that in more detail as
we get closer to either a local vote or a
statewide vote.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
But I did find your piece very interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Kevin Flynn is, as I noted, one of the few
mostly rational members of the Denver City Council. I would
call him really rational except that he's okay with with
government workers collectively bargaining. But no, Kevin Flynn is seriously
one of the good guys, and he and he protects
us day in and day out from the crazies. And
I'm grateful for your work as always, and grateful for
(16:52):
your time today.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Mostly thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Thanks Kevin. We'll talk again. We'll be right back on
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