Colorado Springs City Council Candidate Survey SpringsTaxpayers.com
Candidate name: Jay Inman District: 2
Website: Jay Inman for Colorado Springs City Council – Giving Back to our City (jayinmanforcouncil.com)
Date: 18 Feb 2021
- Do you support or oppose increasing taxes or fees, or the establishment of new taxes and fees? If you support increasing taxes and fees (or establishing new taxes and fees), what would be acceptable reasons to you?
In general, I’ve voted against anything that raises taxes in Colorado Springs. There are times when taxes must be raised and those discussions must be had. As our city comes out of the flu season, portrayed as a pandemic, we will face serious issues with Springs voters having to start paying on loans and mortgages that were suspended for the COVID crises. People will probably lose homes. I absolutely do NOT want to increase tax burdens on families and businesses recovering from a year of tough times.
2. What is your position regarding the elimination of motor vehicle traffic lanes (road-dieting) in favor of installing bicycle lanes? Please explain.
I absolutely hate bike lanes and road dieting. As business opens up and more businesses move into downtown, customers need excellent commutes and places to park. That attracts customers. Bike lanes have a place but downtown, they are a nuisance.
3. What is your opinion of infill projects that receive opposition from neighbors? Should zoning change projects proceed —even with opposition from the majority of neighbors living there?
Neighbors should have first voice. If neighbors (voters) are opposed, then infill projects should move elsewhere. Voters should pay attention to what city council members are doing to their neighborhoods in rezoning and in this election, if they do not like what council has done, vote for someone else.
4. As Colorado Springs expands in population and infill projects press forward, infrastructure is stressed. What is your solution for financing new infrastructure?
The 2020s will be about electrical power for our city. It will also be about securing more water access. Number ONE must be reliable and redundant utilities for stable water and power as cheaply as possible for our citizens. Infill projects too often ignore the pleas of neighbors and stress our utilities in new ways not studied in the eager attempt to develop these areas. My solution is that council, developers, and utilities must find market focused imagination and innovation that does not destabilize our utilities or neighborhoods.
5. As COVID-19 closures and restrictions persist, many local businesses are suffering. What should be done for businesses and their employees?
OPEN UP NOW! 18% fewer people died nation wide in COVID year 2020 than in 2019. This is not a pandemic. Further, there were 650,000 small businesses in Colorado that employed 1.1 million Coloradans pre COVID. Today, that small business number is reduced to around 480,000 This is a catastrophic loss of nearly 30% of our small businesses and the jobs of Coloradans. In our city, we MUST exercise our authority as a Home Rule City to open up.
6. Local activists raised the issue of defunding the Colorado Springs Police Department. Do you support or oppose increasing the number of Colorado Springs police officers? Please explain.
This is foolish at a time when the effects of the highway of human slavery (one of the main intersections just north at I-25 and I-70) and recreational drug use activities threaten our citizens. CSPD is awesome and we should increase their manpower and their training in use of deadly force.
7. Colorado Springs has a stormwater fee of $5 per home, and $30 per acre for businesses. The current council members appear to be in favor of a fee increase and will likely increase it soon. Many of the violations ruled on in a recent EPA lawsuit found that the City failed to enforce requirements that construction site operators implement appropriate measures to prevent polluted stormwater from running off active construction sites. During your term, will you vote to raise the stormwater fee?
NO! I will vote for more efficient use of the funds available. Rather than having another government program and increasing fees, Council should work with developers to craft solutions that are imaginative and innovative, using the market place of home builders to determine solutions that do not cost our voters more money.
8. Do you support or oppose the implementation of recreational marijuana within the City of Colorado Springs in order to capture additional tax revenue?
NO! I think we should use our Home Rule authority to restore penalties for marijuana possession in city limits. My family has personal experience with drug abuse among people we love and are close to. Their entry drug was marijuana. Council must stand behind families and schools, reinforcing the fact that Marijuana is NOT harmless, and resist recreational drug use that kills, destroys, and harms our children and citizens.
9. There is a push in the City for separate affordable housing complexes. According to the National Association of Realtors, the average price of a home in Colorado Springs increased from $175,000 to $371,900 in 10 years. Wages have not kept up with that increase. What is your solution to help residents afford housing?
There is no such thing as ‘Affordable Housing.’ Do we have a problem? yes. What I want to work toward is helping developers build more houses to drive down costs, that we open our doors to their thoughts and plans, and that we NOT create still more programs we would have to ask voters to fund with more taxes. Let the home builders step up and fill this tier with their imagination and innovation as opposed to blocking them from being part of the solution. Pay and Work must be considered together as citizens purchase homes. Most Affordable housing programs actually separate Pay from Work. This is like raising teenagers with no consequences.
10. Is there anything else you want the taxpayers to know about you, or is there an important topic we didn’t ask about that you want to share?
Whether or not I’m elected, my prayer and hope for our city and council is that the Lord blesses you and keeps you, that his face shines upon you, and that he gives all of us peace as we use imagination and innovation to develop and build our great city and care for families and citizens.