Four weeks have passed since Governor Ritter signed into law a bill that raises property taxes. As one dissenting elected official pointed out in yesterday's Denver Post: Gardner called Ritter's "defining bill" the mill-levy tax freeze that will let school districts keep an extra $64 million per year by freezing property-tax rates. "It sets the tone for his first four years as governor," Gardner said. "What do the people have to look forward to? Probably more tax increases." Since I agree that it's definitely the Governor's defining bill, I will continue reminding readers about it at regular intervals. Today seemed a fine opportunity to do so. To learn more, if you missed any of my observations and analysis the first time around: - … [Read more...]
“You touch my grandchildren, and I get really angry”
Yesterday at an Independence Institute women's luncheon, State Sen. Nancy Spence told the crowd (including my wife and several other Institute colleagues) the latest on the investigation re the threatening email she received in April: A state lawmaker who received an e-mail containing a threat to her grandchildren said Tuesday it was sent from a computer at a metro-area hotel. Agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation reviewed the hotel's security tape but couldn't determine the e-mail's author, said Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial. The security tape had been improperly inserted, Spence said Tuesday at a political luncheon. She has vowed to press charges if authorities catch the culprit, who was upset over an education … [Read more...]
Big Government Health Care Looming for Colorado
Colorado, get ready for Hillarycare, Bill Ritter-style. The Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Healthcare Reform has narrowed its proposals for changing the state's healthcare system down to four. As the Rocky Mountain News reports, all would bring increased taxes and government control: "We're disappointed," Lin Zen-ser, of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine, said at a news conference announcing the four plans. "They take away the freedoms of individuals and doctors." The presence of a lone dissenting voice on the commission was not enough to bring forward any proposals that would have promoted freedom: Commissioner Linda Gorman, from the free-market Independence Institute in Golden, disagreed with the four selected plans, and … [Read more...]
Friday One-Two Punch on Dems Blockading Education Reform
In an opinion piece today for the Denver Post, two Republican state lawmakers - Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, and Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Golden - recap the recent direction of education reform in the Colorado legislature. Among other things, they criticize the Democratic majority for enacting new detailed sex education standards (signed by Governor Ritter this week) while being unable to set even modest standards for math, science, and English proficiency (as I also wrote about many weeks ago): It is not as though meaningful reforms weren't proposed. Senate Bill 73, by Chris Romer, D-Denver, and Michael Garcia, D- Aurora, would have required students to be proficient in English to receive a Colorado diploma. And Senate Bill 131, which we … [Read more...]
Washington Post on Schaffer’s Arrival
Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post's "The Fix" blog still ranks Colorado as the most competitive race in the upcoming round of U.S. Senate campaigns, but has noticed the recent encouraging news for Republicans: Republicans (finally) have their man. Former Rep. Bob Schaffer quietly announced his candidacy last week and all indications are that he will have the Republican primary field to himself. Democrats quickly sought to portray Schaffer as a conservative extremist, citing as evidence some of the positions he advocated during his three terms in Congress in the late 1990s. There's no question that Schaffer is more conservative than the average Colorado voter, but he also built up a grassroots following based on the "straight-shooter" … [Read more...]
Here’s Your Chance to Question Governor Ritter
Tonight (Wednesday), Governor Bill Ritter will be taking questions in a live appearance on the Aaron Harber Show. Call 303-296-1253 starting at 8:00 p.m. to get in. I'm sure you have something you'd like to ask. If not, you can probably find some fodder for questions here, here, here, here, here, and here. How about something along the lines of: - If it's so important to raise property taxes, why not ask the voters first? - The Attorney General makes a strong case that you should ask the voters first. Why have you and your legal representatives not responded directly to any of his arguments? - Should politicians and pundits be touting the tax increase as a boon for public schools, when there is no guarantee a single dime of … [Read more...]
Updates
I earlier advertised a new Colorado education blog. Here's a better link to it than the one I provided. I also mentioned my appearance on the Rightalk.com show Labor Pains. The 1-hour show runs on a loop between now and tomorrow (Thursday, 5/17) at noon local time. My segment is on during the last quarter hour, so tune in at 3:45 or 4:45 or 5:45, etc., if you just can't get enough of my opinions and insights. ^^^^^^^ The Cisco 352-001 ADVDESIGN who has been through NS0-163 Network appliance data protection solutions or Microsoft MB2-633 installation and deployment in dynamics CRM is usually great candidates for 1z0-047 Oracle database SQL expert as well as Cisco 642-061 routing and switching solutions for system engineers. Few … [Read more...]
Unraveling Claims of “Bipartisan” Property Tax-Hike Backers
The Dead Governors tout a story about their heroic maverick Republican legislator Al White, who bucked the party line to support a tax increase without a vote of the people (an issue completely ignored in the posting and in the news story linked). White has enabled the Governor to hold forth his property tax hike as a "bipartisan" measure. And the Dead Guvs show no interest in taking a critical look at the piece they so enthusiastically quote. (Nor care to mention the Democrats who voted against it.) The Dead Guvs' silence is consistent with their own faulty usage of the phrase "property tax freeze," which is inaccurate and an abuse of the English language - as I pointed out in a previous post. Unprompted, I am glad to offer my own … [Read more...]
Mount Virtus On National (Internet) Airwaves
Readers who want to hear me share developments in Colorado labor policy and politics with a national audience, please tune in to Rightalk.com on Wednesday, May 16, 2:45-3:00 PM Eastern (12:45-1:00 PM Local). House Bill 1072, the Labor Peace Act, the coming Democratic Convention, Ritter's executive order and other favors to union leaders are all fair game. … [Read more...]
Ritter’s Tax-Hike Supporters Standing on Weak Arguments
Mike Littwin's Saturday column for the Rocky Mountain News highlights the tenuous ground occupied by supporters of the governor's official endorsement of the $1.7 billion+ property tax increase. Their best argument apparently is that some opponents mistakenly voted for a similar proposal three years earlier. Meanwhile, Littwin typifies the rhetorical distortions made by the tax-and-spend crowd. (I omitted the partisan cheapshots that are standard fare for Littwin columns and not to be taken seriously, anyway. Instead, I wish to tackle some of the subtle and salient points about the issue itself that readers are supposed to accept at face value.) 1. The use of the term "property-tax freeze," as though the change in law were going to … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 118
- 119
- 120
- 121
- 122
- …
- 155
- Next Page »