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Opinion
Dear Editor:
I had to smile when I read Su Lum’s recent column espousing her faith in our politicians and in their Burlingame miscalculations. From Su’s perspective, we “needed” the Burlingame affordable housing, “however we could get it,” so “money was never the point.” Sadly, this type of perverse reasoning is common among many of our voters. Why shouldn’t it be? For the most part, the citizens who determine how our money is spent aren’t the ones who actually foot the majority of the bills. We’ll stick the second-home owners with those, thank you!
Using Su’s logic, we can understand why a grandchild “needs” an expensive 80-gigabyte iPod that her grandfather will buy for her. Similarly, our generals don’t mind buying $600 toilet seats and $400 hammers. After all, it ain’t their money! The fact that they “needed” these things should not relieve them of the responsibility to purchase wisely.
The simple truth is that our elected officials have been spending money quicker than a college freshman with her daddy’s credit card. If the money were spent prudently, we would all stand to benefit. However, I would like to assure Su that the hard-working citizens who desperately need affordable housing in Aspen are genuinely concerned about wasted tax dollars. No matter how righteous the cause, they certainly don’t want or appreciate misleading government estimates that miss by tens of millions of dollars.
Jerry Bovino
Aspen
I had to smile when I read Su Lum’s recent column espousing her faith in our politicians and in their Burlingame miscalculations. From Su’s perspective, we “needed” the Burlingame affordable housing, “however we could get it,” so “money was never the point.” Sadly, this type of perverse reasoning is common among many of our voters. Why shouldn’t it be? For the most part, the citizens who determine how our money is spent aren’t the ones who actually foot the majority of the bills. We’ll stick the second-home owners with those, thank you!
Using Su’s logic, we can understand why a grandchild “needs” an expensive 80-gigabyte iPod that her grandfather will buy for her. Similarly, our generals don’t mind buying $600 toilet seats and $400 hammers. After all, it ain’t their money! The fact that they “needed” these things should not relieve them of the responsibility to purchase wisely.
The simple truth is that our elected officials have been spending money quicker than a college freshman with her daddy’s credit card. If the money were spent prudently, we would all stand to benefit. However, I would like to assure Su that the hard-working citizens who desperately need affordable housing in Aspen are genuinely concerned about wasted tax dollars. No matter how righteous the cause, they certainly don’t want or appreciate misleading government estimates that miss by tens of millions of dollars.
Jerry Bovino
Aspen
