Originally posted at Colorado Peak Politics. Re-posted here with permission. As author, I am solely responsible for the content. Local FOX 31 Denver News and reporter Eli Stokols are to be commended for wanting to look at the effects of K-12 education spending cuts and innovative ideas for addressing the challenge. But the first edition of the televised series cries out for context and correction. First of all, it's important to stress that yes, for the past couple years Colorado schools have been experiencing real budget cuts -- after years of steady increases in per-pupil funding. And of course, the cuts will have an impact, albeit an impact that can be heavily mitigated and overcome in the long run by re-thinking how our school system … [Read more...]
Seeking Transparency in Jeffco Teachers Union Negotiations
Update IV, 5:15 PM: For the record and for the sake of full disclosure -- yes, the information related to open negotiations that I have requested from Jeffco Public Schools has been done in my professional capacity as a senior policy analyst for the Independence Institute. My personal and professional opinions happen to be in very close harmony on this issue. And both versions of the recording -- the low-quality one I deleted and the higher-quality one linked just below -- came from a concerned citizen who attended and recorded the public meeting. Thankfully, because the district's recording of the relevant part of the meeting was not posted due to the aforementioned "system error." Update III, 3:40 PM: I have obtained a better 5-minute … [Read more...]
Aurora Citizens Denied: Colorado Springs Not State’s Only Front in Push for Open Government Negotiations
In a time when a large fiscally conservative grassroots movement like the Tea Parties have developed a strong voice, we shouldn't be surprised to see calls for greater transparency in government operations. Not only when it comes to the fiscal ledger ("if you can't defend it, don't spend it"), but also when it comes to those union negotiations that drive so much of government spending. Should any government contract negotiations be done behind closed doors? Why should unions be treated any differently? In Colorado Springs a citizen lawsuit has pressured one of the state's largest school districts to concede to opening up one teachers union bargaining session to public observation. (Decisions on future sessions pending... most likely on … [Read more...]
Supreme Court Campaign Case Pits Colorado Ethics Watch vs. Colorado Education Association
This little tidbit I uncovered either shatters the grand Colorado Democracy Alliance (CoDA) conspiracy theory or proves it to be even more convoluted and diabolical than previously imagined. But court documents show two of the Alliance's core groups -- sue-happy Colorado Ethics Watch (CEW) and the Colorado Education Association (CEA), the state's largest teachers union -- on opposite ends of a state supreme court case regarding elections law. Back in 2008 CEW filed suit against a couple of Republican 527 groups (Senate Majority Fund LLC and Colorado Leadership Fund LLC) claiming that they had overstepped the bounds of campaign finance law by participating in "express advocacy" of state legislative candidates. The administrative law judge … [Read more...]
Help Big Govt Gary Slim Down
You can help Big Govt Gary do some serious slimming down. We're talking about a very serious weight problem. Social Security pounds? Medicare bloat? Pentagon paunch? Check out this clever new video to get started: … [Read more...]
A New Way to Contact Elected Officials; A Solution for Grassroots Apathy?
Efforts to organize constituent groups to contact and lobby their elected officials have grown more sophisticated in recent years. Many of us like the ease of the online petition that automatically directs messages to our representatives based on our input location data -- though I frequently prefer to tailor the pre-fab messages with my own words. I can't be the only one who has subjected myself to an onslaught of email messages urging me to call my Congressman or state senator over the latest hideously outrageous or earth-saving piece of legislation. A result of the sheer volume of these messages, combined with limited resources and competing priorities, my eyes long since have glazed over most of them. Have I become too cynical? … [Read more...]
March Is Not the Best Month for CO Senate Majority Leader John Morse
March is a bad month for Colorado Senate Majority Leader John Morse. Last year about this time he went a little ballistic at Amazon.com on a YouTube video he created -- trying to blame the company for deciding to terminate its Colorado Affiliates program rather than pay the Democrats' new tax. Last year's episode looks like a warm-up act for this year's arrogant display, with John Morse threatening the private homes of citizens who filed an ethics complaint against him. You see, March so far has been filled with Colorado Peak Politics (if you're not reading this blog regularly, you should be! ... and no, I don't know who is behind it) reporting on a brewing scandal: Democrat legislative leader Morse claiming $40,000 in public … [Read more...]
New MAD Video: Debt Ceiling
Mothers Against Debt (MAD) has launched a powerful video update about the crushing load of national debt we already face and the danger behind plans to raise the debt ceiling: Don't crush the baby! As a dad of two (and soon to be three) young girls, the message hits home with me. Fiscal responsibility and spending discipline, already fixtures in our own household budget, are the watchwords of the day for the federal government Leviathan. Delaying today's decisions only magnifies tomorrow's pain. Let's start imposing the bitter medicine. Our children will thank us later. … [Read more...]
Numbers Show Government Employees Top Private Sector Counterparts in Colorado’s Union Membership
It looks very much like Colorado is only one year behind in achieving a labor movement milestone measured at the national level. A little over a year ago I reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) finding that government employees represented a numerical majority of the unionized workforce in the United States. (You can listen to a 2010 iVoices podcast on this finding that I recorded with the Alliance for Worker Freedom.) This milestone is the culmination of a decades-long trend in which private sector unions have diminished while Big Labor has targeted government agencies as fruitful sources of revenue. As of 2010, we have the first strong indications that the same observation can be made of Colorado -- namely, that more of the … [Read more...]
Lincoln’s “Better Angels of Our Nature”: For Wisconsin 150 Years Later?
It's easy to overlook, especially if you're not a student of U.S. history. But once upon a time, before the ratification of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, presidents were inaugurated on March 4. Which makes today the sesquicentennial (that's the 150th anniversary, for Buckeye fans) of Abraham Lincoln swearing the oath of presidential office in a moment of profound national crisis and delivering his First Inaugural Address:We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the … [Read more...]
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