March 03, 2009 01:45 AM UTC

No Health Inspectors=Food Poisoning: Who Knew?

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Denver Post becomes the latest in a growing collection of major media outlets to note the deterioration of effective government, quality of life, etc. associated with El Paso County’s decades-long ideological experiment eviscerating its own revenue base. Stridently right-wing El Paso County has long collected a small fraction of what similar Colorado counties get in tax revenue per capita–and the results are emerging as cautionary tale, not a “model.”

Note to Grover Norquist: next time you’re in town, pack your own food and water–the health department seems to have drowned in a bathtub.

If you’re swimming in El Paso County this summer, try not to swallow much water – nobody will have checked it for contaminants.

Be gentle with that playground equipment, too, because once it gets banged up, it’s gone for good.

Anyone dining out might also want to take a peek at the restaurant’s certificate of inspection, because the health department isn’t getting around to eateries like it used to.

As property-tax rates tumble and sales-tax revenue evaporates, residents in the backyard of Douglas Bruce – the state’s leading evangelist of small government and small taxes – are learning just how small government can get. So far, voters have shown no inclination to part with any more tax dollars.

Now, local leaders are warning that with no fat left to cut, basic services such as law enforcement, courts, public health and child-abuse investigations are all in jeopardy…

We’ve been talking about this self-made crisis for years now. This isn’t about small government versus bloated government – this is about what happens when you cut taxes and spending with no goal other than cutting taxes and spending. You can’t do it forever. This is exhibit A of how cutting spending and taxes is not a public policy in and of itself, despite what many Republicans still advocate today.

El Paso County can’t inspect the restaurants due to massive cuts to the health department. They can’t pay for enough deputies to patrol the county, or have backup if they get in trouble. The even cut the suicide prevention program, when Colorado Springs recently achieved the honor of second-highest suicide rate in the nation.

And just in case you’re trying, right this minute, to come up with a good reason why El Paso County doesn’t need health inspectors (or cops, or open space, or all that other stuff), a cause-and-effect vignette everyone can understand:

For years, the health department has lacked the staff to inspect restaurants and other food providers twice a year, as required by state law. Department director Kandi Buckland said it’s no coincidence that “in 2008, preliminary data showed El Paso County had the largest number of food-borne illness” in the state. [Pols emphasis]

What are you grumbling about? You wanted government “out of your life.”