Mount Virtus

"Happy to come back to Michigan, but I miss the mountains!"

Ben on Social Media

Home Archives for clean government

By 1 Comment

Coloradans, You Can Make a Difference for School Financial Transparency

Update, 1/29: More coverage on Colorado Spending Transparency and Ed News Colorado, as well as a kind link from the Open Records blog. This morning the Colorado Senate Education Committee got a bit of a surprise, it might seem, with a slew of concerned citizens coming forward to testify in support of Senate Bill 57 (PDF) (sponsored by state senator Ted Harvey) - which would bring something akin to full-fledged financial transparency to Colorado public schools. It's unusual to see more than 15 average citizens come forward to testify for a piece of legislation - and rarer yet, to have many of them do so quite eloquently. Most were from the metro Denver area, a couple hailed from Weld County, and one of them drove three hours over the … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Colorado Democrats Kill Clean Government, Anti-Political Blackmail Bill

From the Denver Post:A bill that would have barred back-room ballot initiative deals got the heave-ho at the state Capitol Tuesday. House Bill 1069, from state Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, would have made it illegal for anyone with a ballot initiative certified by the secretary of state to then withdraw that initiative because of a deal offering money, gifts or any “other valuable consideration.” A provision like that already exists in state law when it comes to candidates for office. It's official: your Democrats in charge at the Colorado statehouse once again come out against clean government. In voting down House Bill 1069, they have winked at the use of the citizens' ballot initiative process for political blackmail by … [Read more...]

By 10 Comments

Nearly Half of Coloradans Admit They Don’t Know Who Michael Bennet Is

Congressional Quarterly says Michael Bennet "needs to get better known" -- who? Oh yeah! Colorado's junior junior U.S. Senator. The Democrats' Public Policy Polling - in a herculean effort to put an impossibly meaningful spin on an election that's more than 21 months away - finds almost half of Coloradans will admit they don't even know who Bennet is. (How many of the 54 percent were fibbing, or thought maybe pollsters were asking about this AFC West rival running back?) We're a long way from knowing much of anything about the dynamics for the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Colorado. But we'll at least begin to have a good idea of the terrain when we see how Bennet casts his vote on union card-check legislation. With the announcement … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Financial Transparency Makes Public Education a More “Public” Enterprise

The Colorado state legislature has been a place of little significant action lately. But one bill first scheduled to be heard in committee this week is Senate Bill 57 (PDF), which would open up the spending of school districts and other local education agencies in an online searchable database. Read about the advantages of this sort of policy change in my new Independence Institute op-ed:Colorado has a tremendous opportunity to lead the way in making public education a more truly public enterprise. School officials should place detailed and useful spending information where citizens can access it freely: the Internet. Such a simple and highly cost-effective approach promotes public accountability and transparency. Public schools … [Read more...]

By 1 Comment

The Democrat “Stimulus” Bill: “Serious times call for silly, self-serving solutions”

Here's my new slogan for the day: "Serious times call for silly, self-serving solutions." At least as it applies to Democrats and their approach to addressing the current economic downturn . The Wall Street Journal sorts it out very nicely in today's editorial "The Stimulus Time Machine":The stimulus bill currently steaming through Congress looks like a legislative freight train, but given last week's analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, it is more accurate to think of it as a time machine. That may be the only way to explain how spending on public works in 2011 and beyond will help the economy today. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, a mere $26 billion of the House stimulus bill's $355 billion in new spending … [Read more...]

By 1 Comment

Night Twister’s Online Guide to Colorado Conservative Political Activism

Fort Collins' Randy Ketner - better known to online readers as Night Twister - has just officially entered his name into contention for 2009 Colorado Conservative Activist of the Year. How is that? See what Randy compiled over on his RedState page: "Getting Connected in Colorado". It's a seemingly comprehensive list of government officials, political organizations, online conservative organizations (including my Independence Institute), bloggers and talk radio shows, Colorado Web 2.0, Colorado "mainstream media", and online national groups. If you see anything missing, leave Randy a note so he can keep it updated. When it comes to local political blogging, Randy is a relative newcomer - only about 18 months under his belt at Night … [Read more...]

By 17 Comments

Governor Bill Ritter Wants to Welcome Gitmo Terrorists to Colorado Prison

Update: Welcome, Michelle Malkin readers. Perhaps you'll agree that Colorado can do much better than our current Democrat governor. Any article (this one happens to be from 9News) that starts with the following line spells bad news:Gov. Bill Ritter supports the idea of bringing terror suspects to Colorado to be housed at the federal Supermax prison in Florence. Go ahead, read the rest of the article. Governor Bill Ritter clearly has a long way to go making a compelling case to the people of Colorado. So why do it? Theories abound: … [Read more...]

By 1 Comment

Huzzah: The Oklahoma 3 Are Free!

Months ago I introduced readers to the story of outrageous injustice against Paul Jacob and the Oklahoma Three. For a little closure, yesterday brought some great news:Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has dropped criminal charges against The Oklahoma Three–Paul Jacob, Susan Johnson and Rick Carpenter–who had been accused of conspiring to violate the state's now unconstitutional law against out of state petition circulators. Kudos to these three for their courage and conviction. In this age, we all should be proud to have citizen watchdogs like them on our side. … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Putting State Government’s Checkbook Online Should Take Months, Not Years

I quickly hoorayed last week when Governor Bill Ritter announced his full backing for putting the state's checkbook online. But a follow-up report from Face The State seemed to suggest the process could take a long time:“Putting the budget online will be different because there is too much to put it all,” [state representative Don] Marostica said, adding that legislative staff is working on ways to publish a “simplified” version. While Kennedy was hesitant to commit to a timeline, Marostica said the process could take three years. But - as explained in this iVoices podcast with Sandra Fabry of Americans for Tax Reform - the fact is the federal government has already pioneered this work, along with several other states, and all … [Read more...]