What's wrong with this picture?

So is the kid in the back the one peeing in the pool, or the business owners getting the shaft?
The following institutions have been essentially closed for business for the past two months:

Estes Valley Library
Estes Park Museum
Estes Park Health clinics
Estes Park town staff

Yet none of the more than 500+ employees in these four institutions have suffered job losses, furloughs, or, as yet, any reduction in wages.  Wonderful for them.  Except that money is not coming from any particular service they are providing (and the library and museum and the hospital and most of the recreations and events provided by the town lose money anyway), that money is coming from the taxes of those that have to eat and have running water, some of whom are not working.

These four institutions depend on property taxes and sales taxes and, in the case of the hospital, which loses money year after year, subsidies from the federal government plus insurance and out-of-pocket reimbursements for services provided, when they are provided, for example, when the surgical unit has a working autoclave (meaning not for the last half of last year).

We all love the fact that no one in these institutions has lost their jobs during what is essentially a shut-down, when every community surrounding Estes Park, like Berthoud and Loveland and Fort Collins, are forcing salary cuts or eliminating positions in these same corresponding institutions, but, wait, what?

The national unemployment rate is nearing 25%.  Most of the downtown, non-essential businesses are suffering, and some percentage of their employees are without work. And they are the ones being forced to wear masks?  Not the folks in these other institutions, oh no, masks for those folks (as was pointed out, including those in the town hall during town board meetings) are optional, unless they are interacting with the public in a clinical setting, for example, or taking library books to their car.

So let's be clear:  The downtown businesses provide most of the sales tax and keep up the property tax values for those other four entities to survive, and those other four entities are doing, um, what again to justify keeping all of their employees, some of whom can't be doing their jobs (how can you justify paying someone to hold history programs or give tours or provide ukulele lessons that aren't being given?  Or organize and promote the Rooftop Rodeo when it isn't being held?) full salaries?  Besides feeding at the trough, filled by the bread of those out there farming and ranching and working?  How about we spread around the misery index a bit, and start putting the cart after the horse?

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