Mayor Mike Johnston and Denver’s Superintendent, Alex Marrero
Blame the voters for all that new debt…
Politicians putting debt on the ballot and telling the people what they’re going to buy with this debt is a bit like putting chocolate cake in front of friends and family.
Politicians create the debt package and then they take it to the voters. And if the voters approve this debt package, then this is all that we will hear, “the voters approved it.”
The politicians are going to blame the voters. We’re not going to hear that they created this debt package in the first place.
“To the voters” is just an inconvenient political step the politicians sandwich between their financial meetings where they think-up all this new debt – and closing the deal with the Wall-street banks.
Oh Wall-street, Wall-street, we have no money, will you help us?
Dear politicians: you need to own the responsibility for all that debt. YOU are responsible for this debt, and we, we the taxpayer, we pay for it, every single penny.
For example, the Denver Board of Education voted in August of 2024 to request $975 million in new debt on the November ballot. This board seems to be unwilling or unable to do the hard work, the tough work of avoiding new debt. So they just create a new debt package and send it to the voters.
Denver Public Schools won the vote November 5, 2024 and this keeps the ball rolling for a couple more years. Unfortunately, the ball is rolling in the wrong direction.
Public school debt is a counter-productive waste of valuable money regardless of local elections promoted by school boards and mayors with power to keep and nothing to lose – except for the financial possibilities of the children as they inherit a world full of debt.
The adults, especially the school administrators, seem to be more interested in their own paychecks, at the expense of the children in the classroom. Unfortunately the children are too young to have much say and influence pertaining to new debt.
The ballot book for more Denver school debt, said, “without imposing any new tax.” Sounds like this to me:
SHALL THE VOTERS OF DENVER APPROVE THAT WITHOUT RAISING TAXES, DPS GETS $975 MILLION IN NEW DEBT TO CONTINUE TO MAKE ADMINISTRATIVE PAYROLL? A YES VOTE WILL CONFIRM OUR MATH HERE AT DPS – THAT 10 MINUS 5 EQUALS 10. VOTE YES FOR.
Asking the voters to approve debt without raising taxes is like asking the voters to confirm that 10 minus 5 equals 10. The school board’s request was for the voters to confirm their political lie.
Most everyone knows this. I have talked to dozens of people, and even non-numbers people, even non-financial people – they know this. Yet, the politicians continue to say that debt does not increase taxes. Of course it does.
K-12 debt is like college debt, except it’s kid debt. The kids will need to pay-off this debt when they get older and begin to pay taxes. Let’s call it what it is, Child debt.
Zero debt and very low financial overhead is, by far, the best financial position for the schools, for the kids, for the teachers, for the budget, for the taxpayer. Every dollar we give to Chase bank is the same thing as taking that dollar and throwing it into the trash can. Zero actual service comes from every dollar of debt service.
Financial equilibrium is where we want to be
Unfortunately, most finance employees work continuously to create another layer of leech, gives them something to do. And then they team up with advertising to promote the new financial crap.
Government debt is a perfect example of false good intention. And then promoted by the politicians with large amounts of expensive advertising nonsense, “Look at what we will buy for you and all we need is for you to approve new debt.”
Government spending requires twice as many tax dollars per spend when we use debt to get it done. Let’s take a new bridge for example: 1) we need tax money to pay for the new bridge, plus, 2) we need twice the tax money in order to pay for the debt service on that debt.
In other words, if we use debt, we, we the taxpayer, we will pay twice as much for that new bridge. Basic math. The banks love this debt, this is how they make so much profit.
Government debt is just terrible strategy to begin with. Revenue is the only way to pay for it – a bridge, a school, all things. Bonds pay for nothing. Every single dollar needs to be repaid from actual revenue – plus enormous amounts of interest, fees, and other expenses.
The idea that we “finance” our government is like a person saying, “I think I’ll finance my life so that I can travel and do yoga.” This makes NO sense to begin with.
Citizens – we need to be ready for the next election.
Are more debt requests coming from our politicians and our bankers? Of course. Debt begets debt. Finance always loves another layer of leech. Government debt is easy money for Chase bank.
Lured by banking greed and financial systems that promote and advertise the idea that we all benefit from government bonds, politicians seem to spend more time arranging for new debt rather than working hard to avoid new debt.
Dear politicians: stop blaming the voters for all your debt when you have first say, and you have last say – on all new debt. Our children deserve a better world than a world full of debt to be repaid.
