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Renew Health Community Fund

Dear Editor:

Ballots will be mailed to registered voters this week. The Healthy Community Fund is asking to renew for six more years with an increase, for a new total of $5.55 per $100,000 of assessed home values.

I’ve heard concerns about government involvement with human services – that the government can’t do it all, and elected officials shouldn’t make nonprofit funding decisions – and I agree.



The whole point of asking voters to approve the first Healthy Community Fund almost 10 years ago was to create a separate citizen-driven source of funding for human services and environmental efforts, with ongoing oversight by a volunteer citizen board. In this case, the “government” was clearly the people of Pitkin County making a decision to dedicate tax funding to services they value.

Senior Services receives about half of its revenues from the Healthy Community Fund. The other half of Senior Services revenues comes from private and public grant writing, participant fees and gifts.




The other 60-plus agencies receiving Healthy Community Fund grants use it as proof of established local community support which helps convince private and public funders to give larger grants. All human service agencies implement rigorous outcome measures and reporting standards for citizen review.

The Healthy Community Fund continues to define our community as unique through public support of human services. Please renew the Healthy Community Fund with your vote this month.

Marty Ames

Aspen