Mount Virtus

As college basketball fever sweeps the land today (have you filled out your brackets yet?), let’s not forget another type of March Madness: the ability of taxpayer-funded lobbyists to treat our elected officials to luxury box suites and high-priced seats at NCAA Tournament games. Check out RealMarchMadness.com, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity (HT: John Fund, Opinion Journal).

By the way, how does this Final Four sound?: Florida, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Louisville. If you think I’m crazy, just remember what time of year it is.

Our Democrat Governor Bill Ritter announced today to Colorado homeowners: “No tax cut for you!” The Governor’s plan is to freeze a scheduled cut in property tax rates so he can increase funding for K-12 education – already the richest, healthiest part of the state budget.

The proposed funding increase (part of Senate Bill 199, this year’s School Finance legislation) is primarily designed to create more full-day kindergarten and preschool slots. According to the reliable source of Colorado Senate News, Republican Senator Josh Penry correctly identified the move as a “tax increase,” while Assistant Senate Minority Leader Nancy Spence rightly questioned the “one-size-fits-all approach” that trumps the Democrats’ conveniently played “local control” card.

The Governor’s press release suggests that the plan will save the State Education Fund (SEF) from insolvency. However, steering a more fiscally sensible course would do the same just as well. The latest report on SEF from the Legislative Council projects that the current course of mandated Amendment 23 education spending increases will temporarily cut into the Fund but isn’t expected to deplete it. Of course, the Council’s report doesn’t take into account new programs and spending increases.

One reason it seems politically safe for Governor Ritter to make a pro-tax pitch like this is the repeated and constant distortion of our state’s history and standing in funding public schools. Colorado ranks 28th nationally at more than $9,000 spent per pupil in K-12 education. State appropriations to K-12 education per pupil have grown by 16 percent in the past 5 years – after you factor out inflation. It’s not like all the money has dried up.

Then again, one might be willing to consider more funding for early childhood education, if it weren’t run by the same monopoly system that has done such a mediocre job of educating the state’s elementary and secondary students.

Asking the taxpayers to give a little more “for the children” without a more systematic fix of what ails our schools is the easy path: bowing to the collective interests of unions and bureaucrats against the diffuse interest of average homeowners. Instead, it’s time to stand up to the interest groups and support parental empowerment with choice and opportunity, Mr. Governor. Are you up to the challenge?

So today the AFL-CIO has officially threatened Governor Bill Ritter with throwing its weight around to move the Democratic National Convention from Denver, just because the Governor vetoed HB 1072. A bill Ritter once described as “not a big deal” is certainly much more than that to labor union leaders. Here is the statement in full:

AFL-CIO Executive Council Statement

March 8, 2007

Las Vegas, NV

COLORADO’S WORKING FAMILIES

For a decade, working families in Colorado have fought to build a stronger, more unified labor movement and create a more balanced political and economic environment – an environment responsive to working people’s needs and concerns. This extraordinary effort has produced significant progress and potential on many levels. Colorado labor is rightfully proud of helping elect working family-friendly majorities in the state House as well as the Senate and replacing a Governor hostile to workers with one who promised to stand with workers.

The reality revealed by recent events, however, is sobering and unacceptable.

After the Colorado state legislature struggled to produce a major breakthrough for workers by voting to amend the Colorado Labor Peace Act, Gov. Bill Ritter turned his back on workers and the values of his own party by vetoing this long-sought reform.

The legislature is to be commended for championing issues important to the lives and futures of Colorado’s working families. But Gov. Ritter’s actions deserve our strongest condemnation.

Gov. Ritter publicly supported the reform legislation while running for office and actively seeking the support of Colorado’s working families. His veto at the behest of moneyed interests is a betrayal of the working men and women who devoted countless hours to help elect him by going door-to-door, working in phone banks, passing out leaflets at worksites to mobilize their co-workers and showing up on election day to vote for him.

Gov. Ritter also broke faith with the legislators in his own party who supported the Labor Peace Act amendment.

This betrayal weakens the prospects of all working people. We are united in denouncing it, and we will take immediate action to reverse it.

As a first step in supporting the Colorado labor movement, the AFL-CIO Executive Council will send a top-level delegation to meet with Gov. Ritter to discuss this and other issues of crucial importance to working families in Colorado.

We intend to pass the legislation again and secure a clear commitment from the Governor to sign it.

We will also ask the legislature and the Governor to commit to move ahead with other actions to strengthen the voices of Colorado working families, address their economic insecurity and take on the Colorado health care crisis.

We call upon Gov. Ritter to demonstrate that he is in fact committed to working families and the issues important to them by immediately appointing a labor liaison representative to his cabinet so the voice of workers and their unions is heard in the highest levels of state government.

Finally, the AFL-CIO Executive Council recognizes that the attention of the American people will be focused on Denver and the state of Colorado as they prepare to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Union members and working people will make up more than a quarter of the delegates to the Denver convention. These delegates and working Americans across the country will be looking in the months ahead to see whether Gov. Ritter supports working families. Unless we can be assured that the Governor will support our values and priorities, we will strongly urge the Democratic Party to relocate the convention.

The AFL-CIO Executive Council asks that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Gov. Howard Dean, Chair of the Democratic National Party; Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Chair of the Democratic Governors’ Association; Senator Joan FitzGerald, Colorado Senate Pro Tempore and Chair of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee; Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff; Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper; and the Honorable Elma Wedgeworth, Chair of the Denver Democratic National Convention Host Committee.

My favorite line? “Gov. Ritter publicly supported the reform legislation while running for office….” We’re still waiting to see where in the record this was promised. The proverbial smoke-filled back rooms of union headquarters should not be considered a venue for expressing public support.

The question is: What will Ritter do in response to this delegation’s demands? I don’t know, but it sure is fun to watch the rift grow among Colorado Democrats, at least from this seat in the house.

It sure helps to make for a great weekend!

For a highly knowledgeable insights, in-depth reporting, and the latest scoop on charter schools in Colorado, check out Denise’s new blog: Colorado Charter Schools. Anyone interested in educational freedom and parental options in our state should bookmark this site.

While I work on investigating more carefully a couple of issues in the world of Colorado politics, I decided to take the easy road this morning and link to an article that will challenge the defeatists in this country to keep an open mind about events in Iraq. To add a little dose of perspective to your mainstream news intake, I recommend you read Notes from Baghdad, from yesterday’s Opinion Journal. (HT: Conservative Grapevine)

Now is not the time to pull the rug out from under our military operations – a la the Democrat leadership in Congress. Let’s not be afraid to give success a chance.

More substantive blogging later, but it’s always instructive to open up the Denver Post and read that the Democrats’ idea of cleaning up elections is giving paroled felons the right to vote. Of course, the Post article omits mention of a basic fact in the Senate Bill 83 debate. You have to read the Rocky Mountain News to learn that Democrats defeated an amendment requiring proof of citizenship to vote.

Not that any of us should be surprised by these revelations.

On the point of paroled felons, the Rocky reports:

But Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver, had a different view. Groff, who amended the bill to allow parolees to vote, argued that state law bans anyone confined behind bars from voting.

“When you look at moving people from prison to society, the more things you can make them responsible for, the less likely they’ll go back in prison,” he said.

With all due respect, our public elections should not be part of a rehabilitation program. I think Senator Josh Penry (R – Fruita) put it best in this Colorado Senate News article:

After the debate, Penry added, “Voting is a cherished right, not therapy for convicts. If we want them to be given more responsibility, buy them a dog.”

It is clear that the two major parties representing us in Denver have distinctly different views about the sanctity of voting rights and the integrity of elections. Thankfully, the Republicans are there to remind us that the warmest and kindest of intentions do not always make good public policy.

As for the Democrats, the voting rights scorecard is pretty clear. Paroled felons? Yes. Proof of citizenship? No. After last November’s election day debacles in Denver and Douglas County, the citizens of the state are looking for a reasonable solution. Instead the Democrats are working to give us Senate Bill 83, a poison pill dressed up as honest election reform.

Three Republican state legislators made a statement by walking out of yesterday’s House Education Committee meeting yesterday, and the least this blog can do is shine the light on it. Here’s the thumbnail of the ongoing story.

Senate Bill 61, devised by Senator Sue Windels (D – Arvada), was written to empower the education bureaucracy at the expense of parents who want to exercise the option to start a charter school. That’s right: empower educrats, distrust parents. Yes, ignore the fact that there are thousands of kids in this state on waiting lists to get into charter schools. Ignore consumer demand. The all-wise educrats need to keep a tighter thumb on charters, according to the logic of Windels’ bill.

Well, after weeks of political jockeying, Windels was caught by surprise when a coalition of Republicans and inner-city Democrat Senators voted to completely overhaul her bill and make it choice-friendly.

Like their counterparts on the Senate Education Committee, the majority Democrats on the House Education Committee tend to reflect those most closely aligned with the institutional status quo – mainly, the teachers union (CEA), school board association, and others who are far more concerned with preserving institutional authority and taxpayer perks than providing more choices to parents.

So yesterday, when Representative Michael Merrifield (D – Manitou Springs) and his colleagues on the House Education Committee voted to do the educrats’ bidding and change back Senate Bill 61 to its original harmful form, 3 Republican legislators led by Representative Cory Gardner (R – Yuma) took a stand.

Why? Because Merrifield didn’t want to hear opposing testimony from the Charter School Institute’s Alex Medler (a Democrat, incidentally), says the Rocky. The message is not so subtle: “Don’t get in the way of the establishment agenda on education. We know what’s best for you.”

Kudos to the Republicans – and for a handful of praiseworthy Democrats – for being willing to innovate the schools in a way that empowers parents and families, not that limits their choices.

It seems likely that the House and Senate may approve two vastly different versions of Senate Bill 61, leading to a very interesting conference committee. This battle is far from over. Keep checking in for the view from Mount Virtus.

A new professional-looking, self-styled Colorado Republican blog has emerged today to encourage its cohorts to engage in more clear, direct, factual, and systematic attacks on the state’s ruling Democratic majority: Colorado Index. The site’s proprietor also seems keen on keeping a tight and selective focus on bloggers who consistently focus on state issues. So what does (s)he say about Mount Virtus?

“Works for one of my favorite organizations. Good Guy. Needs to blog more to be included.” Okay, okay. I admit I’ve slacked off lately. Consider the fire lit.

Overall, I couldn’t be more pleased to see the new site, even if it’s sure to reinforce the opinions on the Left that we are connected cogs in Colorado’s Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. So be it.

My time to write is limited now, but expect more on the Democrats’ attempt to fight back and put the clamps down on charter schools with today’s episode of the ongoing saga of Senate Bill 61, by Senator Sue Windels (D – Arvada) and Representative Mike Merrifield (D – Manitou Springs).

An official welcome from Mount Virtus to the new chairman of the Colorado Republican Party: Dick Wadhams. You know the state Republican Party may finally be getting its act together when the Left goes unhinged with slanderous attacks. Putting up a tough front can often be a way to cope with fear. Let the mud fly!

You can almost hear the Left in Colorado hearkening back to their great hero of 2004 … “Bring it on!” I may actually start looking forward to the 2008 election cycle. It could be fun.