Enough is Enough: El Paso County Voters Demand Change, Part 2
I have learned a lot, running for County Clerk. I have visited over 4,000 homes throughout El Paso County, talking about my values and goals but also listening to what people have to say about local issues. In my previous post, Enough is Enough: El Paso County Voters Demand Change, Part 1, I revealed one of the most common complaints about the current state of the Clerk’s Office – the lack of quality service.
The following is the second most common topic of complaints – government spending habits.
El Paso County Taxes and Spending Habits
Spending: People don’t usually object to paying taxes (just the amount they pay) or to the idea that government offices spend money. But many people don’t think that government offices are smart with how they spend money. They see work crews they think are too big, they look at the number of people earning supervisor’s pay, they see money spent on PR rather than on trash cans and streetlights, and they wonder if government can’t get by with less. Just as they have in their own life, and just as the business they run or work for has had to do.
We have certainly cut costs in El Paso County’s Public Trustee Office – what used to cost nearly $250 to perform is now done for about $125. People have asked why I would do that, which is an odd question. I believe that when I am in a position of trust over other people’s money, I owe it to those people to be a good steward of that money. The revenue in my office is from fees paid by banks, not from taxes, but anything we don’t spend can supplement the County’s General Fund. The County can then use that money to fix roads, or fund the sheriff, or just to put off the next time they will call for a tax increase. I could spend more than we do, but I just feel it would be wrong to spend any more than is appropriate.
So as Clerk, just as I have done as Trustee, I will work to find ways to reduce the cost of doing work. The Clerk, like the Trustee, is largely funded by fees but as with my current office money saved by the Clerk can be used elsewhere in the county to supplement or replace tax revenues. There will be plenty of time to detail how I will do this in future posts; for now look at my record in office so far: we are doing more work while spending less money, more than $1.5 million less than we would have if productivity had not improved.
Learn more about my views on cutting costs and making El Paso County Clerk’s Office more efficient.
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