Presented by: Go Team!

 Sick of paying for city taxes  Want their city government to make cut backs  "Let's start cutting stupid programs that cost taxpayers a pot of money," says Tim Austin, a 48-year-old former home builder now looking for a new line of work. "It's so bullying and disrespectful to take money from one man's pocket and put it in another's."

 Shrinking police department  Put city utility up for sale  Debating whether or not to sell municipal hospital  Slash salaries and benefits of city employees

 Taxi drivers to be “second set of eyes” for police force  Residents can pay $100 a year to adopt a street light  Volunteers organizing to empty trash cans  One community center will soon be run by a church

 Boosters think the moves by Colorado Springs will be adopted elsewhere. "We're a model of how cities can creatively adapt to budget adversity," says Sean Paige, a self- described libertarian on the city council. "You can have great quality of life without a great big government at the heart of it."

 Many vacant positions are now gone  Encouraging early retirement  Reducing park maintenance  Cutting firefighters and police jobs  City buses no longer run on weekends and nights  Turning off 1/3 of streetlights  Parks losing trash collections  Closing community centers

 Residents can pay $100 to adopt a street light  An evangelical church has agreed to operate one community center.  Supporters have sponsored pizza dinners, jewelry-making lessons, bake sales and a chili cook off to try and keep another center open  The U.S. Olympic Committee donated $250,000 for sports programs

 Taxi drivers are now a second set of eyes for the smaller police patrols  City officials hope to get a deal with retailers which would allow residents to get discounts on riding mowers for voluntarily grass cutting in the parks.  38 volunteer groups have been organized to empty garbage cans in neighborhood parks  There is a web site which allows these groups to communicate and post schedules

 Without the community centers, there wont be anywhere for kids to go to stay out of trouble  It is hard to raise money to keep centers open  People aren't sure how long the volunteer work is going to last