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Confused by Torrenomics

Mayor Torre, “I’m an advocate for values-based budgeting; priority-based budgeting, as it’s called.” (“Aspen’s mayor focuses on 2020 vision for city,” Dec. 30, aspentimes.com).

Really? What is he talking about? What a mouthful of contradictory mishmash, defying definition and coming from the person at the top who is responsible for a budget of over $100 million. Perhaps Mayor Torre is now just applying his gut-feel (his values, his priorities) to economics.

Here is a simple suggestion, forget the words and phrases. Focus your visionary process on the simple goal of reversing the bloat, actually reducing the spending levels of the city. Aspen’s budget is many multiples of other comparable towns, i.e., Vail or Steamboat. Cut costs and subsidies, then council and the citizens will truly be on the same page.



Neil B. Siegel

Aspen