Data Geek : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

Many Colorado Springs employees are well-compensated

October 23rd, 2009, 2:04 pm by Perry Swanson

penny1 The Colorado Springs government compensates the vast majority of its employees at a rate higher than the average wage for all workers in El Paso County.

That’s one of the findings from my analysis of city salary data, which officials released to my colleague Daniel Chacon late Thursday. The average annual wage for all workers in El Paso County was $41,444 in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Among city employees, 2,135 workers, or 90 percent of the city workforce, make more than that.

The salaries of all workers, their names and titles are posted in a new database on The Gazette’s Web site. I’ve done just a quick analysis, which will be part of the basis for a story later today. Here are some of the other findings:

* Colorado Springs has 2,370 employees who will collectively earn $145.3 million this year.

* The median salary for city employees this year is $61,888.

* City Manager Penelope Culbreth-Graft is the highest-paid employee, at base pay of $210,000 this year. Other top earners include City Attorney Patricia Kelly ($183,736), Chief Financial Officer Terri Velasquez ($165,898) and Assistant City Manager Nancy Johnson ($165,000). The third-highest paid employee, Assistant City Manager Mike Anderson, who makes $165,898, announced his retirement Thursday.

* The nine members of the Colorado Springs City Council are the government’s lowest-paid employees. Each of them makes $6,250 per year for the part-time positions. Among the lowest-paid conventional employees, 27 workers earn 30,000 per year or less, including maintenance workers, equipment operators, office specialists and others. The city provided data that doesn’t distinguish between full-time and part-time workers.

* The government has 292 job titles. Police Officer is the title held by the largest number of employees, including 522 workers. The average pay for a police officer is $65,373. The second-largest group of employees is firefighters, including 124 workers with that title. Their average pay is $60,209.

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Posted in: Uncategorized • government salaries • government spending | 3 Comments »

Deaths resulting from child abuse rise in Colorado

October 21st, 2009, 10:08 am by Perry Swanson

More children in Colorado are dying as a result of abuse or neglect, according to a report released today.

The victims include 7-year-old Chandler Grafner, who died in May 2007 of starvation and dehydration, the Every Child Matters Education Fund said in a report calling for more funding and other reforms to prevent child abuse deaths.

Chandler Grafner was one of 28 children to die from abuse or neglect in Colorado in 2007, up from 20 children in 2001. There were dramatic increases in other states. In Florida, the number of deaths went from 91 to 153. In Oregon, the number went from eight to 12. Nationwide, 1,760 children died from abuse or neglect in 2007, up from 1,300 in 2001, the report said.

Among the views advanced in the report:

* Child abuse deaths are preventable. The president and congress must elevate the protection of children to a national priority of children facing mortal danger are to be protected.

* The actual number of child fatalities is unknown but is believed to be much higher than official statistics.

* Child abuse and neglect fatalities flow from extensive child maltreatment in the U.S.

* Many more American children die from abuse and neglect than do children in other advanced countries.

* It is largely an accident of geography whether abused or neglected children receive the full protection they need.

* Many child protection workers frequently lack the resources and training they need.

* Restrictive confidentiality laws shield the press, elected officials and the public from shortcomings in the child protection system.

* Stopping child abuse and neglect fatalities requires fighting child poverty.

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Posted in: Uncategorized | Post a Comment »

Fact check: Do data support argument for gay marriage?

October 20th, 2009, 12:59 pm by Perry Swanson

I'm going to assume those are opposite-sex hands.

Maine is the latest battleground in the fight over granting legal recognition gay marriages. My colleague, religion writer Mark Barna, calls attention to part of the debate today in a blog about a newspaper opinion piece that aruges data on divorce rates indicate states that favor gay marriage have strengthened marriage as an institution for all people.

The author, Lew Alessio, makes several assertions that I think bear examination. Here are a few of the assertions, and my analysis.

Claim: The U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States cited the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with the lowest divorce rate in the nation. And the divorce rate in Massachusetts has dropped in the last five years. Taken together, these two statistics indicate that marriage and families became stronger since marriage rights were given to same-gender couples.

Both claims are accurate. The number of divorces per 1,000 people in Massachusetts was 2.2 in 2005, the lowest rate in the nation if you don’t county the District of Columbia, which had a divorce rate of 2.0 per 1,000 that year. The Massachusetts rate declined from 3.0 per 1,000 people in 2000.

Massachusettes was not the only state where divorce rates declined from 2000 to 2005. Divorce rates declined in 40 other states and the District of Columbia during the same period. The divorce rate rose in only three states during that time: Connecticut, Oklahoma and Montana. There are seven states, including Colorado, for which insufficient data are available to make the calculation.

Massachusetts started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. It was the first state to do so. Many other states have passed constitutional amendments or laws restricting marriage to a man and a woman, including many states where the divorce rate declined. Missouri residents, for example, passed an amendment to their state constitution banning gay marriage in 2004. The divorce rate in that state declined from 4.8 to 3.6 from 2000 to 2005.

Claim: Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, whose general assembly this year considered a bill that would recognize gay marriages performed out of state, all have divorce rates below the national average. Iowa, which became the first Midwest state to legalize same-gender marriages, has a divorce rate of 2.7 per 1,000, again below the national average.

There are several false claims here. The national average divorce rate is 3.6 per 1,000. Vermont’s divorce rate in 2007, the latest year available, was 3.8, and New Hampshire’s was 3.9. The rates in both states exceed the national average. Connecticut and Rhode Island do have divorce rates that are lower than the national average, 3.1 and 2.8 per 1,000, respectively.

Iowa’s divorce rate of 2.7 in was for 2006, but that was well before the state recognized same-sex marriage this year. Rhode Island’s legislature is considering legal recognition of same-sex marriage, but the question remains highly divisive in that state.

Claim: Across the United States, states that have codified laws or constitutional amendments to deny marriage rights to same-gender couples and their children have higher divorce rates than the states where marriage equality has become law. We can click them off one by one, state by state. Utah, Colorado, Alaska, Mississippi, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas.

That’s nine states the author identifies as having legal bans on same sex marriage. In fact, there are a lot more. According to the gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign, 29 states have constitutional amendments restricting marriage to a man and a woman, and 11 states have laws to the same effect.

Claim: Take Colorado. Denying marriage to same-gender couples has resulted in a divorce rate more than twice that of Massacuhsetts.

Wrong. The divorce rate in Colorado in 2007 was an estimated 4.4 per 1,000 people. That is exactly twice the rate of Massachusetts, not more than. The data on divorce rates in Colorado are less complete than those for Massachusetts, but the Census Bureau does provide the numbers for both states in 1990 and 2007. During that period, the divorce rate declined in Colorado by 21 percent and in Massachusetts by 20 percent.

Moreover, the claim that denying marriage to gay couples in Colorado resulted in a higher divorce rate than Massachusetts is flawed. Colorado voters in 2006 approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and rejected a measure that would have granted legal recognition to same-sex partners. Colorado’s divorce rate was much higher than that of Massachusetts before that vote. Afterward, Colorado’s divorce rate remained the same and the rate in Massachusetts declined by a tenth of a point.

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Posted in: Uncategorized • marriage • sexual orientation | 1 Comment »

Could the local outhouse industry be in decline?

September 29th, 2009, 7:52 am by Perry Swanson

casio_calculator__2_ There, there. It’s going to be all right. You’ve felt something was missing in your life for the past week or so, but you weren’t quite sure what.

It was data. You were missing your data.

Your faithful Data Geek has returned from a trip to Hawaii (population 1.3 million), and there are many data to report. Ah, but the time for analysis is scarce. So for now I offer but a smattering of new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Here’s a figure to give you a quick fix: 401. That’s the estimated number of El Paso County housing units that lacked complete plumbing facilities in 2008. By the way, it’s an improvement from 2000, when 814 housing units lacked complete plumbing facilities. The Census Bureau doesn’t say how these folks wash their hands, or whatever else a person does with running water.

The number is part of an avalanche of new figures the bureau put out last week as part of its annual American Community Survey. They’re the best numbers anyone has breaking down the basic social and economic traits of Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region. Check the details for yourself, but here are a few more I find interesting:

55,589 — Number of people living along in El Paso County, accounting for 25 percent of all households.

129,334 — Number of El Paso County residents age 15 and older who have never been married. Among males, 32.2 percent fall into that category, but among females it’s only 23.2 percent.

21,988 — Number of El Paso County residents who are not U.S. citizens.

11,233 — Number of El Paso County residents age 5 and older who speak Spanish at home and don’t speak English very well.

2,451 — Number of El Paso County residents claiming Slovak ancestry.

24,548 — Number of vacant housing units in El Paso County.

26,888 — Number of El Paso County housing units with five or more bedrooms.

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Posted in: Uncategorized • census • demographics | Post a Comment »

I’m taking a short break

September 17th, 2009, 10:38 am by Perry Swanson

By the way I’ll be out of the office until Monday, Sept. 28. Please check back then for your daily data fix.

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Posted in: Uncategorized • data geek blog | Post a Comment »

Database estimates your final destination

September 17th, 2009, 10:34 am by Perry Swanson

It could be right around the corner. But probably not.

There’s a chance I’ll die in the next year. There’s a chance you’ll die, too, but let’s stick with me for the moment.

I could die of cancer. I could be killed. I could die of infectious and parasitic diseases. That last one sounds interesting.

The most likely way for me to kick the bucket is in an accident — a car wreck or something. The second most likely way is by suicide. I want to say that’ll never happen, but my solemn duty as a Data Geek compels me to acknowledge the possibility.

All this comes from a fascinating online database that allows users to examine their risks of dying by various causes. The database, run by the Center for the Study and Improvement of Regulation at Carnegie Mellon University, accounts for factors such as age, race, gender and state of residency. It figures, for example, that I have a 12 in a million chance of dying of congenital defects during the next year. During the next five years, the chances rise to 56 in a million. During the next 30 years, the chance is 408 in a million.

These kinds of databases are pointless in terms of deciding how to live your life. Of course the database can’t account for numerous factors that play into a person’s individual risk. The data are based only on statistics about people who have actually died, and under what conditions.

But it’s still fun to check out the possibilities.

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Posted in: Uncategorized • age • death | Post a Comment »

A reader replies to property tax rates story

September 16th, 2009, 10:04 am by Perry Swanson

Among the more thoughtful replies to this week’s story comparing property tax rates in Colorado cities was this one from reader Mike Souza.

I figure the story stands on its own, and so does Souza’s reply, so at least for the moment I won’t get into a bunch of back-and-forth with him. Except on one point, that is.

Souza says my colleague Daniel Chacon and I “don’t want to pay more taxes,” and apparently thinks that was the motivation for writing the story. That’s wrong. Chacon has written numerous stories exploring the city’s financial condition, and so have I. At the time, we were falsely accused of pursuing a tax-increase agenda. Now we come out with a story that many perceive as hurting the chances of passage for a tax increase, and again we’re accused of pursuing an agenda.

How about a different interpretation? Maybe: Chacon and Swanson are reporting the news without regard to whose political agenda the facts support. That would fit better with our records of news coverage, and it has the advantage of being true.

Here’s the letter from Souza:

——————

This is in reply to the recent article on Gazette.com called “Facts don’t back tax-hike proponents”.

The writers of the article chose their words very carefully and made the obviously biased arguement against the proponents of “2C”, but their own facts make the argument against them.

What they didn’t say was of the 259 cities listed, 217 of them do pay higher taxes than Colorado Springs.

Of the 217 cities that pay higher taxes, 60% (150) of them pay over 200 % more.

After the final mill increase, of the 163 cities that will pay lower taxes, 41 will be within 1.5 mills.

They used information based on 2009 statistics to make their arguement proving how much higher Colorado Springs’ taxes will be in comparison to other cities five years from now. I find it hard to believe that none of these cities will increase their taxes in the five years also.

To Mr. Swanson and Chacon ,,, I get it. You don’t want to pay more taxes. No one wants to pay more taxes. I don’t want to pay more taxes. But, if we don’t chose to support this initiative, here’s some facts
for you:

- 59 public safety positions eliminated.
- 3 fire aparatus removed from service.
- 1 police helicopter removed from service.
- The closure of historical sites, museums, all seven city pools, and five community recreational centers.
- Complete removal of maintanance and irrigation of street, median, and park areas.
- Over sixty thousand hours of public transportation cut to include routes to Ft. Carson and Schriever AFB.

Like many other transplants, I chose to make Colorado Springs my home and ultimately a place to raise my family because of it’s beauty and services. Now, those very things are in jeopardy. I choose to fight for my home.

Sincerely,
Mike Souza

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Posted in: Uncategorized • data geek blog • government spending • taxes | Post a Comment »

Want to compare taxes and services? Get ready for brain damage.

September 15th, 2009, 12:46 pm by Perry Swanson

Try to sort out tax rates and services in different cities, and your brain could end up looking like this.

My story in today’s paper examined a very narrow issue in tax policy: If Colorado Springs voters approve a property tax increase, where would the city rank for property taxes among the state’s cities? With my colleague Daniel Chacon, I examined property tax rates in every Colorado city that levies a tax. We found Colorado Springs would have a higher property tax rate than the majority of cities, which is contrary to claims made by tax-increase proponents.

Several commenters with our online story wanted to raise bigger questions. A user named jpluidl1 wrote: “The issue is, do you want to pay higher taxes so the city can provide needed services?” Another commenter named cwfffan wrote: “It would be interesting to also see a comparison of the services the other cities in this study offer.”

Excellent points, and let me tell you, I agree. I would also love to see a proper comparison of the taxes and services in various cities. So if you’ll set me up with a staff of 10 people and six months to do the research, I’ll get back with you. That was sarcasm, folks.

The point is comparisons among governments are extremely problematic. Just a few of the complications:

* Special districts. Dozens of small government agencies called special districts operate within Colorado Springs and other cities, and each levies a property tax. They provide services that would otherwise go to a city government, such as parks and street maintenance. If you want a comparison between Colorado Springs and, say, Denver, you’d have to specify a single property within each city, and then the comparison would apply only to those properties. There is no way to make a meaningful generalization because tax rates vary widely within a city.

* Sales taxes. They seem straightforward enough, but tourists and other visitors account for a huge portion of sales taxes paid to a government. The truth is, nobody knows exactly how much sales taxes that visitors pay. In addition, sales taxes paid by visitors vary widely among cities. Visitors probably account for more sales tax revenue in Vail, for example, than they do in Colorado Springs. At any rate, it’s not fair to say city residents bear the entire sales tax burden. In effect, when it comes to sales taxes, residents are getting more than they pay for.

* Accounting for different services. Colorado Springs residents can choose from several different companies to carry their household trash away. In Denver, though, trash service is part of the tax bill and provided to all residents. That’s one reason Denver residents pay higher taxes — they also get more services. Any comparison would have to account for all these variances among cities.

All that doesn’t even address the difficulty of just acquiring the data (You can’t just march into a city budget office and say “turn it over.”), or how you could identify cities that are appropriate for comparison. I am definitely open to ideas for how a proper comparison could be accomplished, but for now I see a lot of barriers.

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Posted in: Uncategorized • government • government spending • taxes | 3 Comments »

City property tax rate details

September 14th, 2009, 3:36 pm by Perry Swanson

I wrote a story with city reporter Daniel Chacon today examining the claim that Colorado Springs would have one of the lowest property tax rates in Colorado even if a plan to triple the rate succeeds.

The claim is wrong.

Several readers asked for more detail, so I uploaded the spreadsheet I created with Chacon which lists the property tax rates in every Colorado city that has a property tax. Posting the link here was partly a ploy to get more readers to check out my blog, so if you’re new to Data Geek, welcome.

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Posted in: Uncategorized | 10 Comments »

Judging by police numbers, law enforcement needs all over the map

September 14th, 2009, 3:27 pm by Perry Swanson

Colorado Springs had 977 people working for its police department in 2008, according to data the FBI released today.

That’s a lot more than some cities of comparable size, and it’s a lot less than some other places.

Minneapolis, for example, has a nearly identical population to Colorado Springs, but it has 1,122 employees in its police department. St. Louis, which has about 22,000 fewer people than Colorado Springs also has a police department that’s about double the size, at 1,997 employees.

Raleigh, N.C., meanwhile, has 10,000 more people than Colorado Springs, but its police department has only 803 employees. Omaha, Neb., has 59,000 more people than Colorado Springs, and its police department has 893 people.

Maybe Omaha makes up for a smaller police force by keeping more cops on the street — 748 sworn officers compared to 671 in Colorado Springs.

None of these numbers by itself is strong enough to use as the basis for any conclusion. But they could raise questions about whether Colorado Springs is giving enough (or too much) to its police department.

The big news today was the FBI’s release of crime data for thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide. We’d be more excited about that here, except we reported on it a couple of months ago.

Here’s a quick look at details on the Colorado Springs Police Department and some agencies in similar-size cities.

graph5

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Posted in: Uncategorized • crime • government spending | 1 Comment »

Many Colorado Springs employees are well-compensated

Deaths resulting from child abuse rise in Colorado

Fact check: Do data support argument for gay marriage?

Could the local outhouse industry be in decline?

I’m taking a short break

Database estimates your final destination

A reader replies to property tax rates story

Want to compare taxes and services? Get ready for brain damage.

City property tax rate details

Judging by police numbers, law enforcement needs all over the map

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