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...]
Bill Ritter and Colorado Dems: Cheap Tactics, Poor Leadership
It's a classic trick to try to extort taxpayers, yet Bill Ritter and Colorado Democrats are acting as if we're too naive to see it. Mr. DNA at Rocky Mountain Right yesterday highlighted a story in the Denver Post where Ritter and other Democrat leaders made an absurd and startling revelation - blaming the Republicans (who are in the minority across the board) for the inability to move forward a transportation agenda:"I feel like this conversation broke down around politics, that we tried to get the Republicans interested in looking at how we would put together different pots of money," Ritter said. "We began our conversation very early in the session and could not get the Republican leadership to act on it at all." Senate President … [Read more...]
Colorado Republicans Get Head Start on Easy Job of Critiquing Ritter, Dems
From this morning's Rocky Mountain News:As Democrats raced Tuesday to write what were the final chapters of the 2008 legislative session, Republicans passed around a playbook for taking back the House and Senate this fall. Not exactly big news, but a fun story nonetheless. Take for example the response of the Democratic Speaker of the House, who must still be feeling the stinging blow of not finding enough support for his plan to gut TABOR:"I think that's disappointing but not surprising," said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver. "When you're in the minority, you can either take pot shots at the party in charge or you can actually work together and solve problems." The legislative session is behind us. And maybe, just maybe, the … [Read more...]
Liberal Denver Post Columnist Assails Do-Nothing Democrat Legislature
Liberal Denver Post columnist Susan Greene expresses her frustrations with the Democratically-led state legislature:After citing budget reform as a top priority, House Speaker Andrew Romanoff has tabled the issue without even a vote in committee. Better to let voters decide than force lawmakers to get their hands dirty, especially in an election year. After working to raise severance taxes on oil and gas drilling, the legislature has dropped the effort without explanation. After a blue-ribbon panel met for eight months on transportation funding, lawmakers passed none of its major recommendations. And after promising voting reform before November's election, they rubber-stamped a bill to recertify voting machines that the state … [Read more...]