City to raise property tax???

Here is a clarification from the mayor followed by my thoughts.
Lionel Rivera says:
As a point of clarification, when I used the term “shift” I mean just that. As an example; We could ask our citizens at a City election to replace the 0.4% Public Safety Sales Tax with a 5.32 mill levy. It would be the same dollar amount, but a more stable funding source.
Lionel Rivera-Mayor


Hmmmmm. I must admit that the property tax in Colorado Springs is low for the national average. One could also argue that it's a well known fact that we pay the second lowest amount in Taxes (just ahead of Fort Collins) even though we are the second largest city in the state. The problem with tax hikes here is that most businesses are considered "small" (82%.) These employers can rarely afford to give consistent raises and the employees who work for them have limited means. Are they going to be able to afford the hike? Maybe we could find a way to pay city council members a competitive salary. This would not only make the positions more competitive but we could vote people in who have experience in dealing with such huge community issues and they would work full time to boot! Right now we have the rich and/or retired folks on the council because they can actually afford to get paid the peanuts that we give them for the position. Don't get me wrong, there are some excellent leaders on the council (Jan Martin) but unfortunately, I don't see how we can grow and evolve without a full time and deservingly paid council. Let’s bring in efficiency experts that will go through our city and find any slack that is tying up (or wasting) funds. Tabor passed because the citizens were concerned that the city wasn't managing our money and taxes properly. Now the city is countering with the fact that they are now in the hole. Where is the middle ground and as citizens do we feel that our money has been managed properly?