EDITOR: Ballot Issue 1A seeks to address a problem by expanding the problem by taking more of the money from the citizens of Arapahoe County who work long and hard to make in order to provide for themselves and their families, by raising the property tax mill levy by 3.4 mills, which equates to about $5.66 per month or about $68 dollars per year, on the average home price in the county of $380,000. While $68 a year may not seem like a lot to Arapahoe County government, with the cost of living and especially housing in the state above the national average, nickel and dime taxation will make their life and efforts to make a living for themselves and their families harder and hurt the overall economy.
The problem of the overcrowded Arapahoe County jail is an issue of chronic mass incarceration and criminal justice issues plaguing this county, state and nation. With the world’s highest incarceration rate of for just a recent example from 2007-2017 between 440-500 per 100,000 population and with prison sentences for a given offense can be anywhere from 2x-10x longer than in many countries in Europe or even Canada. Building $464 million jails and prisons will only make the problem bigger.
This is why it is important to instead decrease incarceration by decriminalizing and ending victimless crimes like the war on drugs and reforming criminal justice policies and practices like mandatory minimums, three strike policies, federal guidelines running afoul of the Constitution and that can be handled better at State and County levels and reducing prosecutorial practices and policies that cause a lot of corruption are better ways than taxing them to make the problem newer and bigger.
The Libertarian Party of Arapahoe County sees this as unwise, counterproductive and oppose Ballot Issue 1A.
— Eric Mulder, Arapahoe County via letters@sentinelcolorado.com