Last week I brought to your attention an organized labor power play at the State Capitol that shot down a simple effort to make school plumbing inspections more efficient. Today in the Colorado Springs Gazette, guest columnist Daniel Cole tells the story at greater length and offers a forceful conclusion:The unpleasant reality is that Democratic campaigns in Colorado are often financed by unions, so only the strongest Democrats dare defy a union's wishes. Union camaraderie means that a Democrat who votes against a single union can earn a reputation for disloyalty and untrustworthiness. Considering that unions gave [state senators Bob] Bacon and [Evie] Hudak $90,000 for their most recent campaign - [Senator Keith] King's entire war chest … [Read more...]
Unions Lobby State Democrats to Slow Down School Building Inspections
Who's in charge at the Colorado State Capitol these days? Big Labor:A bill whose only aim was to make it easier for local school districts to get their new buildings inspected was blindsided today on the Senate floor by union-led opposition, with all but two of the chamber's Democrats voting to kill the measure. Three of the Democrats who voted with the majority against Senate Bill 64 [PDF]--Sens. Bob Bacon, of Fort Collins, Rollie Heath, of Boulder, and Evie Hudak, of Arvada--had voted in favor of it in the Senate Education Committee only two weeks earlier. What changed their minds? The bill's sponsor, the GOP's Sen. Keith King, of Colorado Springs, says it was the fact that the Journeyman Plumbers and Gas Fitters Union began lobbying … [Read more...]
Colorado Senate Democrats Flee from True School Financial Transparency
Last night I told you about the inspiring testimony of citizens in support of financial transparency for Colorado schools. Today, it was the legislators' turn to do the damage. And damage they did:Senator Bob Bacon introduced an amendment that establishes a “voluntary pilot program†for transparency. It passed and is now on its way to the full floor of the Senate. Senator [Ted] Harvey asked to open up the bill for additional testimony since it had been altered dramatically. Bacon, chair of the committee, said no. Senator Harvey also tried to kill his own bill. Harvey did say he would bring the bill back next year. Bacon, a former educator, used words like “cruel†and “fear†to describe how school districts may respond to … [Read more...]
Coloradans, You Can Make a Difference for School Financial Transparency
Update, 1/29: More coverage on Colorado Spending Transparency and Ed News Colorado, as well as a kind link from the Open Records blog. This morning the Colorado Senate Education Committee got a bit of a surprise, it might seem, with a slew of concerned citizens coming forward to testify in support of Senate Bill 57 (PDF) (sponsored by state senator Ted Harvey) - which would bring something akin to full-fledged financial transparency to Colorado public schools. It's unusual to see more than 15 average citizens come forward to testify for a piece of legislation - and rarer yet, to have many of them do so quite eloquently. Most were from the metro Denver area, a couple hailed from Weld County, and one of them drove three hours over the … [Read more...]
Democrat Rollie Heath Wants to Use Economic Downturn to Kill TABOR
It only took seven weeks after the voters of Colorado said no to a statewide proposal that would have gutted the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) - a proposal pushed by a campaign that heavily outspent the opposition - for the Democrats to be back at it again. From today's Denver Post:Rollie Heath, a Boulder Democrat elected to the Senate, said that as lawmakers grapple in the coming session with cutting as much as $600 million from the budget because of declining revenues, they should also look at TABOR, a revenue-capping provision of the state's constitution. The state is in a timeout from TABOR's tax-revenue limits, but that timeout expires in 2010, when Colorado will have to begin refunding to taxpayers any revenue it collects … [Read more...]