Sean Paige at Local Liberty Online made a great catch, picking up on this excerpt from Bill Ritter's State of the State speech earlier today (H/T Complete Colorado):"There is also an opportunity here – a chance to address TABOR and the constitutional and statutory straightjacket* that makes modern, sensible and value-based budgeting an impossibility. Last year, former House Speaker Romanoff started the conversation, and we need to keep it alive. We need to talk about life after Ref C – whether and when to extend it. We have a chance to find a better way forward, a Colorado way forward." Bill Ritter said what? About 2 months after Colorado voters said No to a proposal to gut TABOR refunds forever and rejected two other major statewide … [Read more...]
Republican Leaders Respond to Bill Ritter’s State of the State Speech
From Colorado Senate News … [Read more...]
Bill Ritter Publicly Endorses Posting State Check Register Online
Update: Colorado Spending Transparency has a similar response about the devil being in the details. Read the post to get a sense of just what some of those details might be. Face The State's report was correct: During his State of the State speech, just a moment ago, Gov. Bill Ritter announced he would back the Republican plan to post the state government's check register online. It's good to see transparency go forward as a non-partisan effort. The governor's announcement foresees a landmark moment for Colorado government, one that promises to empower the citizens of the state. The city of Fort Collins has set the standard for transparency. With the state moving forward, too, now it would be good to see other local governments - … [Read more...]
Mark Hillman Credibly Criticizes Dems for Failure to Save State Money
Mark Hillman - former state senate majority leader and former state treasurer - once again has established himself as a leading voice of fiscal sanity in Colorado. In an op-ed in today's Denver Post, he assails Governor Bill Ritter and his Democratic colleagues at the helm of the state legislature for their ongoing mismanagement of the looming budget crisis:Balancing a budget during a recession is a difficult job, certainly. But balancing this year's budget didn't need to be this hard if only the leaders at the Capitol had learned from the last recession — or listened to those who experienced it. Last spring, as the economic storm clouds gathered, Gov. Bill Ritter and legislative leaders had opportunities to take precautions. One … [Read more...]
Yo, Ho, Ho! A UAW Boss’s Life for Me…
Here's another small log to throw into the automotive bailout fiasco: A local Detroit TV news station tracks the well-paid lifestyle of a couple UAW union plant officials. See if you can count the number of stops at the liquor store made while on the clock, being compensated from their line workers' mandatory dues funds. (H/T Labor Pains) … [Read more...]
How Much Does It Cost to Pay the IRS a Nickel Owed for Federal Taxes?
Did you hear the one about the Internal Revenue Service, a trial lawyer, and loose pocket change? A true - and telling - story in today's Detroit Free Press:In mid-November, [Detroit criminal defense attorney James] Howarth received notice that his FICA account, even after an adjustment, was out of whack. He owed the IRS a nickel. And the IRS was serious. It advised him to act promptly "to avoid additional penalty and/or interest." Howarth started calculating how much that nickel was going to cost him. As he figures it, there is the 5 cents plus the cost of a check -- payment must be made by check or money order. Then there is his CPA's fee, an envelope, his secretary's time, his own time and a 42-cent stamp. "The costs are … [Read more...]
Fiscally Conservative Kevin Lundberg Merits Nod for State Senate Seat
I see the upcoming showdown over the appointment to replace state senator Steve Johnson as a real testing ground: Do Republicans want well-qualified and proven fiscal conservatives of class and character - regardless of their views on social issues - or do they just want to toss officials overboard for their socially conservative views? Estes Park's Jon Nicholas gets it right: state representative Kevin Lundberg is the right person to fill Johnson's seat. Especially if Nicholas' observations (one technical error aside) about Lundberg's less well-known rivals indeed are correct: … [Read more...]
Ed Perlmutter “Working for Change”–Congress Doesn’t Deserve Pay Raise
Today I received in the mail a colorful brochure with the following written on the front: "Ed Perlmutter is On the Job, Working for Change". Franking privileges being what they are, I'm not generally surprised to receive these sorts of notices. But at first I was a little offended by the thought that my Congressman - who made a $169,300 salary in 2008 - would use bold letters to complain that he is "working for change," and to someone who makes considerably less. I braced myself: Was this a set-up? Was I about to open up the brochure and see the case for why Congress needed a bailout from itself? Has the economy gone so sour as all that? Fortunately, no, nothing so unusual as that. Like nearly all members of Congress, Perlmutter's … [Read more...]
Cooler Heads: Barack Obama’s “Energy Czar” a Card-Carrying Socialist
For those who may be laboring under the misconception that President-elect Barack Obama is leaning exclusively to the political center in his administrative appointments, Cooler Heads notes that the new "energy czar" Carol Browner is a card-carrying Socialist. Our work is cut out for us. … [Read more...]
A Month-by-Month 2008 Stroll Down Mount Virtus Memory Lane
It's the last day of 2008, and time for a quick month-by-month retrospective. The following are posts I've selected as the best posts for each month: January: Why did Ritter Leave Worker Protections Out of His Order? February: Getting the Whole Story Behind Ritter's Climate Action Plan March: High-Ranking Democrat: Property Tax Hike Not Just for Schools April: What Was All That Money Doing in Ritter's Inaugural in the First Place? May: Colorado Dems Fail to Lead or Take Responsibility, Irony Lost on Dead Guvs June: Bill Ritter, Tax Increases, Unions, and the Colorado Supreme Court July: Majority of Coloradans Don't Think Bill Ritter is Doing a Terrible Job August: It's Official: Colorado Government 100% Unionized, Thanks to Bill … [Read more...]
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