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Home Archives for override

3/26/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

More Reasons to Make Sure Senate Bill 180 Doesn’t Simply Stall, But Dies

It's encouraging news that the Colorado state senate keeps putting off a vote on Senate Bill 180. The Democrats would seem not to have confidence in the votes to override local control, impose collective bargaining, raise the cost of government services, and threaten the rights of our state's police officers and firefighters. If you need more reason to understand why SB 180 is a bad idea, and why you should keep the pressure on and tell your state senator to vote against it, you should listen to this new iVoices podcast I recorded with Stan Greer from the National Institute of Labor Relations Research: What might seem on the surface like a nice thing to do for our public safety employees is really bad public policy when you take a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, Labor, liberty, PPC Tagged With: amok, bad idea, bad public policy, closer look, Collective Bargaining, Colorado, confidence, cost, Democrats, Democrats Gone Wild, employees, encouraging news, firefighters, government services, impose, iVoices, legislative session, local control, National Institute of Labor Relations Research, override, podcast, police officers, pressure, public safety, Reason, rights, Senate Bill 180, special labor interests, Stan Greer, State Capitol, state senate, threaten, understand, vote

3/20/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Bad Legislation Parade’s SB 180 Would Harm Taxpayers, Employee Rights

Today brings a chance to review another member of the bad legislation parade down at the Colorado State Capitol. Senate Bill 180 (PDF) would override the local will of voters and impose collective bargaining on all local police and fire departments. After making it through the Democrat-controlled State, Military, and Veteran Affairs Committee, the bill is on the slate to be heard by the full senate any day now. From the Denver Daily News:Concerns are being raised that collective bargaining leads to overtaxing government budgets through increased payroll costs, which ends up hitting taxpayers hard. The last time the issue raised so many conservative eyebrows was in 2007 when Gov. Bill Ritter issued an executive order authorizing state … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, Labor, PPC Tagged With: automatic, bad legislation parade, bargaining, Bill Ritter, budgets, coercion, Collective Bargaining, Colorado, committee, communities, compensation, concerns, conservative eyebrows, costly, Democrat, Democrat-controlled, Denver Daily News, equipment, fire departments, fire fighters, full senate, gem, hard truth, higher salaries, impose, law enforcement, local will, Lois Tochtrop, member, negotiating, override, overtaxing, paid, payroll costs, police departments, police officers, policy, political activities, political power, procure, public servants, public services, Pueblo, review, SAFE, safety equipment, Senate Bill 180, services, slate, State Capitol, support, taxpayer premium, taxpayers, Thornton, tools, uniform, union dues, union fee, union officials, union representation, Unions, voters

2/24/2009 By Ben 1 Comment

Democrats and Marostica: “Forget the Constitution, California, Here We Come”

When talking politics or economics, it's usually a powerful rhetorical tactic to compare our own Colorado to California - especially these days. In that light, here's a fitting and timely reminder from state senator Ted Harvey:The lesson Colorado’s legislators must learn from this recession is clear: fiscal responsibility works. Even though the legislature collectively fell short of creating a rainy day fund, TABOR and the Arveschoug-Bird 6% spending cap forced Colorado legislators to keep spending low. Had the government enjoyed free rein in ramping up spending – which is a great temptation to many lawmakers tasked with spending other people’s money – Colorado’s budget crisis would be as serious as California’s. [emphasis … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, PPC, transportation Tagged With: 1992, 6 percent cap, Al Jolson, Arveschoug-Bird, best case, budget crisis, California, cap, Colorado, committee, conclude, court, Democrats, Don Marostica, economics, entitlement programs, Face the State, fiscal responsibility, fitting, good idea, government, government growth, legal advisers, legislative prerogative, legislators, lesson, memo, override, politics, recession, reminder, rhetorical tactic, Senate Bill 228, state constitution, state legislature, state senator, TABOR, Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, Ted Harvey, temptation, timely, transportation, voter approval, voters

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About Me

Ben DeGrow
Grateful and growing Christian, devoted husband and father of 3, public policy analyst, returned to Michigan by way of Colorado, conservative writer, lifelong learner, Detroit Tigers fan.

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