We the undersigned do not want recreational marijuana to be sold in Colorado Springs, Co.

As it is now the sale of recreational marijuana is legal in Manitou Springs, but not in Colorado Springs.

A group is seeking to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana in Colorado Springs by collecting signatures to get the issue put on the November ballot.

This group is presenting a one-sided picture.

They are not mentioning the fact that this measure would do great harm to the people of Manitou Springs.

Allowing the sale of recreational marijuana in Colorado Springs would cause the city of Manitou Springs to lose a huge percentage of their annual tax revenue.

The two cities are right next door to each other.

Manitou Springs has a population of about 5,800 people, and Colorado Springs has a population of about 495,000.

Many residents of Colorado Springs drive to Manitou Springs to purchase recreational marijuana and this provides much needed tax revenue for this small city.

One problem with this issue is that due to privacy laws Manitou Springs cannot tell us exactly how much tax their recreational marijuana stores pay.

This makes it difficult for the public to discern how much harm would be done.

While I am not an accountant or expert, I studied the annual budgets of Manitou Springs and one can see the large increase in total sales and in sales tax revenue since recreational marijuana became legal in 2014.

Ordinary sales tax gives Manitou Springs 3.5% of sales, and there is an additional 6% that Manitou Springs gets on sales of recreational marijuana.

The group seeking to legalize sales of recreational marijuana in Colorado Springs seems to be claiming that they could gain $10 to $15 million a year in sales taxes.

This claim is absurd.

Manitou Springs total annual sales tax revenue is no more than $7 million.

That includes sales from the Cog Railway and every shop in their Historic District.

They claim that some residents are travelling to Denver and Pueblo to purchase recreational marijuana, and that Colorado Springs would see an increase from this group as well, but I doubt that this group would amount to very much.

From my research I estimate that Manitou Springs is getting somewhere around $4 million a year from sales tax on recreational marijuana.

Their annual budget is only $11 million total.

If my numbers are right this would mean that Manitou Springs would lose over one third of their total budget if recreational marijuana were sold in Colorado Springs.

The city of Colorado Springs has an annual budget of around $400 million.

Even if Colorado Springs gained $5 million a year in sales tax that would only be a gain of 1.25%.

Colorado Springs is growing at a rate of 1.15% a year, over ten years the city's population will increase by 11.5%. This will give them plenty of increase in their sales taxes.

On the other hand, Manitou Springs is not expecting very much growth at all because their city is maxed out in terms of the number of tourists their city can handle, and because there is little or no room for new home building.

Colorado Springs has no need to take money away from Manitou Springs.

The change would give Colorado Springs a tiny gain and take a huge percentage of Manitou Springs annual sales tax away.

That would make us bad neighbors, even bullies.

The people who want to get this issue on the November ballot do not seem to care if they do harm to our friends and neighbors next door.

I believe that many good people in Colorado Springs will be willing to sign this petition and reject the ballot issue if they know about its flaws.

Please sign this petition and share it with others on Facebook and Twitter.

If we get this petition going the media will talk about it and advertise it even more.

We ask that everyone in Colorado Springs refuse to sign petitions to get the issue on the ballot, and if it does get on the ballot VOTE NO!