The Greeley City Council are working on their goals for 2007.

For comparison, here is a list of the Council’s 2006 goals.

What do you think the city council should have for goals this year?

In response to concerns by local home builders, the Greeley City Council has decided to postpone raising impact fees on new construction.

John DeWitt of the Greeley Area Realtor Association questioned why the council proposed the fees at the time it did.

“Higher impact fees can have a devastating impact on new home sales,” DeWitt said.

MSN has an interesting article on tax rates by State.

Here is Colorado’s listing

State Colorado
Gasoline* 22
Cigarettes $0.84
Retail sales** 2.9
All state, local taxes*** 9.8%
Rank 38

All federal, state, local taxes*** 30.7%
Rank 23

*Additional federal levy is 18.4 cents nationwide
**Base state rate (local tax may be higher)
***Average, as percentage of income

Colorado is right about in the middle ranking 38th on the state level and 23rd on the federal level, thanks in part to things like TABOR that have kept the politicians from raising taxes whenever they see fit.

Keep in mind, next time when there is a ballot issue for a fancy new police station or ridiculously expensive sign that we are all already contributing 9.8 cents out of every dollar to just state taxes. Makes me wish someone would be a little more responsible with our money.

In the wake of this week’s shooting, Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner, has announced that the local officers will be carrying Tasers. I have no idea if this announcement is linked to the shooting, or just a coincidence.

What I am interested in are comments about use of lethal force by Greeley Pollice officers. It seems that there have been several shootings in the last year or so, but I don’t have hard numbers to back that up right now. Is excessive force being used? How should shootings be investigated?

If anyone has comments I would be very interested to hear them.

Greeley City Council is looking to allocate almost a million dollars to repair roads damaged during recent winter storms.

The Council is also looking at raising fees on new housing developments in Greeley - a questionable move in a soft housing market…