First things first. yes the taxpayers passed the open space tax. It was passed more on inertia than anything. Anybody who votes for such a thing at this point has no idea of the negative impact this tax has on the health of the county. The enviro-nazis in the City of Boulder have decided that open space taxes will be passed without question every time the question comes up. So we're stuck with it. That doesn't make it right and it doesn't make it worthwhile.
Here's my beef (I actually have several of them) with the entire program. It was started in the early 70's as a way to keep BOULDER (not necessarily Boulder County, just Boulder) a stand-alone community. Fine. That mission was accomplished about 25 years ago. Since then, it's been a blank check for the county to gobble up private land and enforce it's land use agenda on the rest of the county. The benefits of the open space program are far outweighed by the costs, and are concentrated in the hands of very few, while the entire county foots the bill. Furthermore, every time the county buys up a parcel of land, it takes that land off the county tax rolls, which reduces the revenue back to the county for things like social services, roads, law enforcement, etc. This basic premise is completely lost on dipsh!ts like Ron Stewart, who never saw an empty piece of land that he didn't want to buy. Finally, I can't remember the exact number, but something like 400,000 acres in Boulder County is publicly controlled. That's over half of the county. What an incredible waste. That's land that needs to be maintained, too. But guess what? the county is running out of money to maintain the gobs and gobs of land it already owns. AND YET THEY BUY MORE!!! It's insanity.