The Denver Post reports good news from Aurora - with a catch:The Aurora school district and its teachers union have reached an agreement on a new contract that calls for a 2 percent increase in pay for all employees this coming school year. But there's a hitch: The school board must agree to put a property-tax hike on the November ballot to fund it and voters must approve it or else there will be no raises. Aurora Public Schools hasn't asked for a mill levy increase since 1990 but feels that is the only way it can fund salary increases for the 2008-09 school year, said chief personnel officer Kari Allen. The timing isn't good. School property taxes for Aurora homeowners and business owners already increased about 6 percent this … [Read more...]
Phil Gramm’s Foot-in-Mouth Problem vs. Barack Obama’s Ongoing Elitism
Did you hear what Phil Gramm - former U.S. Senator, McCain for President economic adviser - said? If you're reading this blog, it's almost impossible to have missed it. (Hey - don't whine at me if you haven't heard what Gramm said!) It's become so bad that less than 24 hours into the story the big media is referencing the extent of its own coverage:Remarks by former Sen. Phil Gramm (R), a top economic advisor to Sen. John McCain, are drawing heavy negative attention for the candidate in the latest media cycle. 1996 was a long time ago - it was the first Presidential election in which I was eligible to vote. Yesterday helped to remind me why the Phil Gramm campaign never left the ground. The man is an economic whiz and one of the most … [Read more...]
Democrat Gwyn Green, Poster Child for Economic Illiteracy, Strikes Again
Liberal Democrat Rep. Gwyn Green, whose state house district covers part of Denver's western suburbs, is a poster child for economic illiteracy. This fact has only been reconfirmed today by a Face The State report on her ill-informed but zealous refusal to attend a party sponsored by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association:"I see no point in attending the COGA Conference," she wrote. "Your announcement does not indicate any desire to moderate the ungodly profits the oil and gas companies are reaping at the costs for [sic] consumers." Of course, the report goes on to explain her fallacy:According to the American Petroleum Institute, statistics through the first quarter of 2008 show that, on average, only 7.4 percent of each dollar paid at … [Read more...]
Betsy Markey Out of Touch on Big Labor Bill: Boon for Marilyn Musgrave?
Colorado's mega-rich liberals Tim Gill and Pat Stryker have it in for conservative Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, who has represented northeastern Colorado since 2003. They have spent countless amounts of money trying to unseat her in the past two election cycles, and are committed to doing it again. This time they believe they have a winning candidate in Democrat Betsy Markey, someone to fulfill their obsession. But this video clip of Betsy Markey trying to explain her position on the poorly-named Employee Free Choice Act shows that Tim Gill and Pat Stryker still have some work to do with their out-of-touch candidate: As the Labor Pains blog points out, this is the same Betsy Markey who has sought to woo small businesses but struggles to … [Read more...]
Bill Ritter’s Fox News Stumble May Point to Bigger Problems Lurking
Rocky Mountain Right has posted a video from last night's Bill O'Reilly Show that demonstrates Colorado Governor Bill Ritter isn't ready for primetime:Bill Ritter recently was approached by a Fox News reporter asking a simple question about sex offender laws. Ritter proceeded to stammer, become visibly frustrated, and try to escape as soon as possible. Other Governors approached with the same question (Butch Otter of Idaho and Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming) performed far better and calmly responded. The observation is correct: Bill Ritter sure doesn't look ready for primetime in this video. But maybe there's another explanation, or some sort of mitigating circumstances that haven't been explored. The stresses and frustrations could … [Read more...]
Barack Obama’s Colorado TV Ad Dressed Up with Clear Exaggerations
Barack Obama has a new television ad that's airing in 18 states, including here in Colorado. Marc Ambinder has the video and transcript:OBAMA: I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message. Announcer: He worked his way through college and Harvard Law. Turned down big money offers, and helped lift neighborhoods stung by job loss. Fought for workers’ rights. He passed a law to move people from welfare to work, slashed the rolls by eighty percent. Passed tax cuts for workers; health care for kids. As president, he’ll end tax breaks for companies that export jobs, reward those that create jobs in America. And never forget the dignity that comes from work. Very cleverly worded to exaggerate Barack Obama's role on each of the main points … [Read more...]
Romanoff Missing Summer Fun to Put Anti-Taxpayer Measure on Ballot
The Rocky Mountain News reports today on outgoing House Speaker Andrew Romanoff's intense efforts to place an initiative on the ballot that would forever end TABOR refunds for Colorado taxpayers. Of course, the skewed way the Rocky describes the ballot measure, you wonder what sensible person could oppose it:While the rest of Colorado is hiking, rafting, barbecuing or putting in some serious hammock time, Romanoff, D-Denver, and a group of volunteers will hit the streets attempting to gather about 120,000 signatures from registered voters.... The proposal aims to unsnarl the fiscal knot of conflicting spending mandates and limits embedded in the state's constitution. Called SAFE (Savings Account for Education), the effort would seek … [Read more...]
Bad News for Colorado Lefties
From Face The State's latest "Buzz":Americans for Prosperity, a center-right grassroots organization currently focusing on encouraging responsible energy policy, has announced that it is opening shop in Colorado with its 22nd chapter. The effort is being headed up by social conservative Jim Pfaff, a former president of the Colorado Family Council known and praised for his ability to make nice with social libertarians. This can't be seen as a positive development by Colorado's liberal Tim Gill-Pat Stryker-Mark Udall-Bill Ritter axis. Whenever the fiscal conservatives and social conservatives start playing nice, working behind a savvy and respected person like Jim Pfaff, that means the Left can't fall back so easily on its "divide and … [Read more...]
Bill Ritter, Tax Increases, Unions, and the Colorado Supreme Court
With a little shameless self-promotion, I tie it all together on the longest day of the calendar year. First, news broke earlier this week that Gov. Bill Ritter has done the inevitable, by agreeing to appeal a district court ruling that came to the clear and appropriate conclusion that Ritter erred in raising school property taxes without voter permission. Sure, I could link to lots of articles that highlight this news, but only the one in the Denver Daily News quotes the author of this blog:"I believe the district court judge did the right thing by recognizing that Colorado voters should be asked before they endure a tax increase," said Ben DeGrow, a policy analyst at the Independence Institute. "It's simply a matter of honoring the … [Read more...]
Right-to-Work States Outpace Forced Union States in Economic Growth
A couple days ago I had the pleasure of pointing out the defects in Denver Post editorialist Bob Ewegen's arguments against Right-to-Work. I wrote:Even more telling than comparisons of static earnings are rates of growth. In both job growth and in overall economic growth, Right-to-Work states have performed better. I therefore found it interesting that another insightful blogger only last week posted an analysis of new economic growth data. Here's the chart Will Franklin produced showing just how much Right-to-Work states outperform states that allow union coercion: Combined with the other flaws in Bob Ewegen's argument, this interesting find only makes the case for Right-to-Work look even stronger. … [Read more...]
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