Bring fiscal prudence back to the City of Boulder

The City of Boulder reminds me of a college student who can’t manage a credit card. When the student is in debt, just call the parents to bail him out.

In this case, the city wants the voters to bail it out with a $400 million ballot issue to be paid out of property taxes. This is after a 2021 ballot issue, approved by voters, that apparently was spent without any improvements to the recreation facilities. In the meantime, we are supposed to tighten our belts by closing Spruce Pool next year, (a tiny cost in city budget), and letting our rec centers fall to pieces. All while increasing the cost of rec center passes and decreasing access to centers.

(North Boulder Rec’s pool is closed for at least two months, while Spruce Pool closes on Monday, despite temperatures in the 90s. North Boulder swimmers must do quite a bit of driving to keep swimming.)

Could it be that the $150 million dollars thus far spent to remodel the former hospital on Broadway has something to do with this? Why wasn’t this put to a vote? Note that the proposed $400 million is to be paid out of property taxes, not sales taxes, meaning there is no way for a homeowner to dodge the $400 or more added to property taxes. This is a significant burden for the elderly and for the few middle-class homeowners, who are not swimming in money.

The bottom line is, can we afford this as a city? I say no, and I will vote “no” in November.

Let’s bring fiscal prudence back to city government.

Karen Flood, Boulder

The war in Iran is reason to vote

Defense Secretary Hegseth posted a recruiting pitch on Facebook recently using a Biblical quote, Isaiah 6:8, “Here am I. SEND ME!” (Hegseth’s capitalization and punctuation), along with photos of our brave military personnel in action. This is his unholy, illegal war.

President Trump stated recently, on Sept. 4, that this “military conflict” is merely “small potatoes for us.” Tell that to the families of 18 dead and over 750 wounded or injured. Meanwhile, our ammunition supplies are grossly depleted; at least 20 generals, admirals and civilian defense leaders have been fired or have left (CBS News) since Trump 2.0. Morale in the military serving in the war is low. Ask the sailors on the USS Lincoln.

And then there is the Main Street economy and global embarrassment.

Vote.

Barbara Willis, Longmont

Chasing AI dominance like Icarus

Why regulate AI less stringently than toothpaste? A 2025 report by 93 international AI safety experts concluded that developers of frontier AI models “understand little” of how their models operate, their inner workings being “largely inscrutable.” The experts warned that increasingly autonomous AI agents could pose new and unquantifiable risks.

That warning proved prescient. In July, 1,200 OpenAI agents exchanged more than 70,000 messages and files, and 700 of them coordinated to break through barriers designed to confine them. Using stolen credentials, they attacked another AI company, Hugging Face, gaining access to private database records and other repositories.

Companies are racing to build the most advanced systems in hopes of dominating the market, even though they cannot reliably explain — let alone control — how those systems behave. Yet the federal government has done nothing to regulate them. The myth of Icarus comes to mind.

Why not apply to AI the same basic safeguards we require of many other industries? Pharmaceutical companies cannot sell a new product until its safety and efficacy are proven. AI companies should be held to a similar standard. They should be required to obtain a license to operate from an independent panel of experts prior to releasing any new models to the public, and demonstrate that they have robust safeguards to prevent the accidental leaks of prototype systems. The burden of proof should rest with them to show that their technologies will protect public health, safety and the environment.

Ronald Rudolph, Golden

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