(And a unicorn in every garage! That’d be one of ours. – promoted by Colorado Pols)
Ok, with session about to start, if you were in the House what 5 bills would you introduce? I’ll start it off with my 5:
- Civil Unions
- Call for a constitutional convention. That will work as well as any of the other convoluted suggestions. And it will be quicker.
- Effective campaign finance reform. Either public financing or unlimited with full disclosure. Including Congressional elections in the state.
- Create a legislative research group who’s job is to measure the effectiveness and ROI of legislation, departments, etc.
- Invest in local start-ups. More jobs, better jobs, and the state turns a profit. What’s not to like?
Civil Unions will delay “marriage equality” by a decade.
I don’t believe the “state” should have any involvement in marriage as civil unions should be the state issue and marriage a religious one.
But, our governments have seen fit to interject themselves into marriage and that does not appear to be going away anytime soon.
that for every word added to the CRS at least 2 words must be removed.
I would agree to have this law sunset after a decade.
Medicaid, the State program for the disabled,does not cover seeing eye dogs. A program for the blind probably should. This would also increase the quality of life of the blind, allow them more mobility, and possibly help them get a job.
I think PERA reform should be at the top of any list.
and get the money to the schools pronto.
Taxing people should be a no-brainer to us tax and spend Dems!
(ducks)
Does your definition of full disclosure, close the editorial loophole?
Let us be honest, most “media” including Denver Post and Colorado Pols are political machines masquerading as objectivity and fairness.
A few weeks ago I was down at the Clerk of the Court for some business. I overheard a couple say they want a marriage license, and the clerk said it would cost $93. NINETY THREE DOLLARS??? Later, I confirmed that I had heard right. “No wonder a lot of people don’t get married,” I said.
Florida, like Colorado and many other states, raised fees on essential transactions during The Second Republican Great Depression to reclaim revenue. Car registrations and driver’s licenses doubled. I guess the marriage license was another victim.
Remember the hypothetical $2 marriage license of American lore? Two minimum wage hours or less would cover it.
Last time I checked, the minimum wage here, or anywhere, wasn’t $45/hr.
1. Create Colorado Bank, governed by the state for economic development, disaster relief, housing loans and secondary education loans. It would serve as funds trustee for political entities within Colorado and partner with lead private lenders within Colorado as guarantor. Any profits will be dedicated to the benefit of Colorado’s citizens. See http://banknd.nd.gov/
2. Create a bipartisan commission of legislators, financial leaders and educators to prepare legislation to be passed in January 2014 that would overhaul Colorado’s public school financing to provide equable, excellent education for every child in the state.
3. Pass an amendment to Colorado’s constitution for referral to voters in November 2014 repealing Amendment 43 (Article II, Section 31).
4. Declare all unclaimed subsurface mineral rights and those, though held but not currently under active development, to be the property of the collective citizenry of Colorado, and mandate, as well, that 10% of all future transferal of private rights devolve to our collective citizenry.
5. Place the decennial political redistricting in the hands of an independent commission.
And on day 6, the Attorney General can start defending against all the lawsuits that will ensue while Hick boozes it up with his O&G buddies on the golf course.
Like the 700 medical marijuana businesses that have added about $50 million to the budget. I don’t remember the gov or mayor at any ribbon cutting for the 6000 new employees?
How about inviting the cannabis vacationing crowd with open arms? You think skiing brings in money?
I know you you don’t want all those stoners running around Denver. You like all the beer guzzlers better. But the stoner crowd is looking mighty professional and wealthy. Have you checked out the Marijuana Majority? Prepare to be shocked.
http://www.marijuanamajority.com/
I am surprised there is no mention here on any effort at reasonable gun control measures, have we already forgotten about Sandy Hook?
I would also like to see efforts made to help control health care costs.
And I hope that tuition equity for undocumented students is on the legislative agenda.
I would like to have legislation emerge that would give voters the opportunity to increase fuel taxes for the first time in 22 years, with some of the funds directed towards mass transit. The surface infrastructure across Colorado – not just the very evident Front Range corridor – is in rapidly deteriorating and obsolete condition, well over capacity, very often unsafe, and a significant influx of funds is desperately needed to more quickly address a wide number of issues and areas. It is painful to watch CDOT and associated entities do a creeping crawl job on I-25 in the Denver Central Valley and points south, and C-470 has become a commuter and safety nightmare, as has I-270, I-76, and I-25 through Adams County, Thornton, Northglenn, and Westminster. I-25 in southern El Paso County, and across northern Colorado north of Longmont is an utter debacle. And we have not even discussed the incredible dinosaur that is I-70 statewide, the need for US 85/Santa Fe to be addressed, US 6 in Denver/Lakewood, US 285 west from I-25, and numerous other issues. A ten to fifteen cent per gallon increase is in order, with some other designated sales/use tax increases tied into the ballot issue, such as a 1% added tax on motor vehicle parts/services/sales, and perhaps even a 1% to 2% luxury tax on vehicles sold priced in excess of 200% of the median vehicle sale price statewide. Some stipulations need to be include to keep an element of the funds received to be used in the counties they were collected in, as there are always at least potholes, broken curbs and sidewalks, inadequate or absent lighting and signage, and obsolete signals everywhere. Lets see the legislature figure a way to address something all of us use every day, improving safety, improving traffic, reducing obsolescence, and working positively towards factors absolutely vital in keeping the state and its municipalities competitive in successfully attracting and bringing new business and other economic development opportunities. We are already substantially behind Utah and other economic rivals regionally and nationally in this respect, and no action only ensures that gulf will be widened, to detriment of all in a number of ways, particularly in regard to something we are always seemingly short of: our own personal time being wasted on bad highways and roads.
This is an exercise in why those elected are different from me and thy. These bills, if they become law, affect people and their lives. The initiative process is fine, but you need to get a lot more than 101 electeds to get your way.
A tax on all .223 and NATO ammunition sold in the the state. Registration of each round of .223 and NATO sold in the state, with a requirement that each round must be accounted for in a log; with a $100 per round bond be set to be returned if the round is returned in original condition or the brass is returned with documentation substantiating that it was fired on a state certified firing range. The $100 to be forfeited if those conditions are not met. If the round is used in any crime, the $100 is forfeited and the owner subject to the same crime that was charged.
Repeal of the male must sleep with female to be married Amendment.
Marriage equality act to replace the paternalistic religion, no male will sleep with another male, Amendment.
Spanish becomes Colorado’s official second language and all official documentation to be printed in English and Spanish.
The Libertad Act to require dumb horse apple posters on blogs stand on various Colfax street corners with hand painted signs stating “I am an idiot”.
Dream Act. Enough said!
Except that just back from Bronc’s game and I really happy #1 seed.
And all 3 of my daughters found civil unions uninteresting. They want the marriage amendment on the ballot to be removed from the constitution and then gay marriage legislation passed. If they’re indicative of most people their age, then I think this could get removed from the constitution in the next election.
Is there any plan to put it on the ballot?
Here goes:
1. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity clips and magazines
2. A bill allowing local governments to forbid hydraulic fracturing and requiring drillers to comply with stringent water quality requirements
3. A bill modifying the tenure reform legislation so that the law makes clear that K-12 public school teachers cannot be disciplined or suffer retaliation from administrators, school boards, or charter school boards for teaching any subject included in state academic standards or for refusing or failing to teach a subject not specified in such standards
4. A bill requiring county clerks to allow registration of voters up to and including election day
5. A bill requiring all rural electric cooperatives to fully comply with the renewable energy standards that apply to other utilities such as Excel energy
I love the 4th idea in the OP. I’m with conservatives (and plenty of liberals) on the gutting of public endeavors that haven’t yielded results, and I know that there are too many well-meaning dud programs at both the state and (especially) federal levels.
Clarification that state rules are the floor not the ceiling for how sensible energy development might occur in places and lands already important and being used by citizens of these United States.
A recognition that public health matters when it comes to permitting any industrial activity even one that makes rich people richer and feeds our addiction, scratches our endless itch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
All us imaginary legislators need to stay in session a second week and get double the legislation done. Too may things need to be done up there under the dome.
We’ll see how it goes in real life.
#1 Debtor-creditor omnibus: Repeal the credit agreement statute of frauds that allows banks to escape liability for oral promises even if made on recorded lines; allow proof of lack of ownership of loans in foreclosure hearings.
#2 Election law omnibus: election day voter registration, publicly paid return postage on mail-in ballots, funding for full time voter registration officials all year long.
#3 Criminal justice omnibus: retroactive reduction of Juvenile LWOP sentences, repeal of felony-murder as first degree murder, reduction of child abuse causing death grading to match grading of comparable crimes committed against strangers, match grading of drug dealing offenses to economic gain associated with activity on same scale as theft crimes, no fault economic compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
#4 Require parental rights hearings to be before panel of three judges and confer right to counsel for indigent parents in parental rights matters.
#5 Discontinue Medicaid estate recovery system (the poor man’s estate tax that effects far more people and collects far less revenue).
With the exception of bill #2,I love your platform!
Simple, but innovative.
Please run for State House.
1. Civil marriage for all. Straight and gay couples. No church has to marry any couple they don’t want to marry; no couple has to go to church to receive all the benefits, rights, responsibilities, and privileges of marriage unless they WANT a church marriage.
2. Increase fines for aggravated cruelty to animals (including neglect and puppy mill operations) and funnel the fines toward fully implementing chemical sterilization for the management of Colorado’s mustang herds. This one is a selfish never-would-actually-happen thing, but if I could wave a magic wand (and spend a few tens of thousands more words actually designing the program) Colorado could be a model in solving the wild horse management problem, which is only fitting because we gave the US Ken Salazar, who consistently bungles it in ways that violate federal law.
3. Figure out how to get recreational marijuana clubs around the indoor smoking ban and regulate and tax them. Open up licensing, get money to the schools.
4. Employment for veterans and people with disabilities, along with some sort of solution to the problem where a person with extremely costly disabilities can lose their health coverage by getting a job and earning money but then have out of pocket medical costs that are more than their total salary. If a person who is totally disabled and dependent on SSDI wants to work, they should be working, not forced to REFUSE work to avoid earning enough money to lose health care.
5. Incentivize state agencies to save money from their operating budgets and return it to the general fund, instead of spending every dollar they take in to avoid getting a budget cut next year. Maybe 50% of savings could be used on improvements for the agency that otherwise wouldn’t be approved for funding, like new technology for employees or better lighting for offices?
6. (Yes, I’m refusing to follow the rules) Clear the records of all people who were arrested for possession of marijuana in amounts now legal under state law. There is no reason a person’s employment should be jeopardized simply because they did something during prohibition that is now legal.
Isn’t that essentially the office of the State Auditor?
But here are my 5:
1. Call for a Constitutional Covention
2. Eliminate “Inactive, Failed to Vote” voter status.
3. Change the state tax code from a flat rate to a graduated system.
4. a regulatory bill to fill in any gaps left from Amendment 64 so pot can be safely grown, sold, purchased, and used in Colorado.
5. Eliminate the caucus/assembly system in favor of a streamlined method to get on the primary ballot.
Most issues I rally care about would be covered in the Constitional Convention, such as marriage equality, and fixing our broken revenue policies.
like evolution in Jurassic Park, will always find a way.
which ones ARE fair and objective…?
Are you going to answer me?
already is a civil issue. Religious ceremonies are entirely optional and do not, by themselves, make a legal marriage. It’s the civil paperwork, marriage license, certificate etc. that makes a legal marriage.
In common law states a common law marriage is established by cohabitation. In no state is a religious ceremony required nor does a religious ceremony by itself establish a legal marriage. So much for marriage as a religious institution. It has always been more a matter of property than religion.
I was married in a civil ceremony by a Justice of the Peace and am just as married as if I had been married by a Rabbi. No one says I’m only entitled to call my marriage a civil union, though that’s what it and all other legal marriages are.
So to me setting up a distinction based on the word “marriage” when marriage is already not a religious institution under our law, makes no sense. Simply recognizing equal rights for the GLBT community ought to make access to marriage automatic without any special legislation or amendments based on a distinction that doesn’t, in fact, exist.
As is the case today, all clergy would still be free to refrain from performing the optional religious ceremony if it violates their beliefs as Rabbis have always been free to refrain from marrying Jews to non-Jews. I remember when I was a school girl my across the street Catholic neighbors getting married in the Church after the husband’s first wife, whom he had divorced, died. They were already married in the eyes of the law, the Church hadn’t been forced to recognize it but the lack of religious recognition had no effect on their legal status.
In short, allowing same gender couples to marry would constitute no change except for the recognition of equal civil rights.
Are any qualified blind people, scuse me, sight impaired, not getting dogs that they need?
They’re “guide dogs” if not acquired through the single nonprofit that provides “Seeing Eye dogs,” a registered trademark of The Seeing Eye.
Policy response: Guide dogs are VERY expensive and are not suited for all people who are blind or have low vision. Their training can cost upwards of $20K. It’s better for nonprofits to handle this and screen applicants to make sure they are suited to handle a guide dog. A service animal is still a living family member, even though it earns its kibble by providing a life-enhancing service, and not all people (with or without disabilities) are prepared to provide proper care for a dog. Before investing $20,000+ in a dog’s training, the recipient MUST be thoroughly screened to ensure the dog’s training won’t be allowed to lapse, the dog won’t be neglected, and the recipient will actually benefit from the dog.
The big problem with education is not financing, it’s that we don’t know how to systematically improve it.
Like Edna below, I’d replace #2 with a concerted public health and safety effort curbing gun and domestic violence.
And, I’d love to see a growing number of states putting redistricting in the hands of an independent commission. It’s a national security issue.
I’d also like to see a ramping up of environmental/natural resource protections and management.
even if it’s just me and Larry. Look, the state constitution calls for equitable education for children across the state. As a former Colorado educator, I can say with confidence that the current education finance model is not equitable.
I got lucky – my parents sent me to an out-of-district high school (Littleton High) where I got a phenomenal public education. Parents shouldn’t have to open-enroll their kids in order to assure that they get a quality education. And in rural areas, where the size of the state makes open enrollment impractical if not impossible, kids aren’t adequately prepared for college. You can talk to my Lobato cousins in the San Luis Valley about that.
The legislature’s first obligation is to uphold the federal and state constitutions. Until it figures out how to do that, the other stuff can wait.
is a fantastic idea . . . I have hoped the Democrats at the Capitol would push harder for it for a long time. There are models around the nation.
I also like your fourth proposal. I think it would be likely to temper the irrational rush to commit fracking.
33 children in a kindergarten class in Aurora, it’s a problem.
All the poor teacher can do is maintain order. Teaching is out of the question.
Money pays for more teachers.
beyond which financing doesn’t help much and administrators tend to fall for silly expensive boondoggles on a regular basis.
Being able to retain veteran teachers and recruit quality new teachers, maintain facilities and expand overcrowded buildings, and simply afford to provide for the health and safety of kids are ongoing expenses that aren’t being met. For the past decade or two, marquee funding initiatives have tended to pay for one-time things that then go to seed as attention moves elsewhere.
Financing is a huge issue on a couple of levels. It’s not only how little we spend:
http://www.coloradocapitolwatc… Coloradans need to pony up,
Perhaps the greater issue is the way we raise revenue for our schools, primarily by taxing real property, county by county. Not only is Colorado blessed with wide swaths of non-taxable public lands and cheaply taxed agricultural lands, but many of our counties are so damned poor their total property value is too low to support even minimal education, no matter how high their taxes were. Kids in those areas are getting screwed, big time.
Colorado needs to come up with an entirely different system for funding its public education, one that’s equable across the state and that provides the best opportunity to each and every child. That is, unless you admire Mississippi or Texas.
Come to think of it, I’d move this to Day 1.
is probably the fairest of the local media covering politics.
They may sit around babbling harmlessly and scarfing up the pastries, but marijuana does not induce violent behavior, so let em come and party down.
Boozers, on the other hand, tend to get violent. Given the choice, I’ll take stoners over boozers. And it’s a vacation market with only one legal competitor in this country, Washington State.
I recall you mentioning it the last time we were planning a meetup. A friend was there recently and met the gentleman who was in charge at the time. Was impressed with the man and the pie.
Please?
Also agree on the gas tax. FASTER was bad legislation to raise revenue, should be repealed and a higher gas tax put in place. Our highway infrastructure another victim of TABOR.
Only if they are accompanied by significant expenditures on a Front Range light rail system (Fort Collins-Pueblo), acceleration of the Denver light-rail system, and large increases in funding for bike trails throughout the state.
The Statesman does a far better job than most people give it credit for.
also frequently vacuous. Rarely does the Statesman venture beyond shallow politics and fluff profiles to really dig into the policy of ideas floating about in the Capitol.
While I would love to see the passage of The Dream Act, this is an issue before Congress and not something the state legislature can act on.
The best case scenario for the State Legislature would be to pass tuition equity. And not a special tuition category for undocumented students but the same in-state rate their fellow legal status students pay.
Sorry to go off topic…but…
Go ponies!!!
called “Leader Dogs for the Blind” that is associated with the Lions Clubs.
It is over at das google.
Just curious.
is that it was introduced because previous efforts to raise the gas tax had failed, and future gas tax increases were presumed to be politically untenable. FASTER accomplished roughly the same thing with dramatically less political uproar – yeah, it doesn’t contain any punitive element vis-a-vis gas-guzzling, but such a measure would penalize truck-driving farmers and ranchers just as much as SUV enthusiasts in Highlands Ranch. If you want eco-friendliness, the best answer is not to own a car (and not to pay a vehicle registration fee). Yes, that’s impractical for some people, but I can say with experience that commuting along the Front Range using a bike, public transit, and one’s own two feet is entirely feasible.
If only someone was willing to fund it…
(It’s not like two of the biggest Dem donors in Colorado are gay or anything…)
You have to see how ALL age groups feel about the issue.
Your girls are absolutely in the right, morally speaking, but I think it would not be practical to repeal that amendment that soon. Not just because of the real risk that it wouldn’t pass, but also because such a victory for the bigots would threaten the momentum of marriage equality nationally, whereas civil unions would help it along.
People are coming around, but it takes time. I think the fact that the states with marriage equality are not burning under brimstone rain will bring some more people into supporting it. I wouldn’t want to risk things by putting it out there unless I was sure it would pass.
Seems logical but also that it should already be part of the system.
???
And I absolutely agree with your intent in #3.
How do we fund education for these kids, in every part of our state, so we can climb back up and be proud of being Coloradans?
USC
Richard Vedder
Bob Williams
I find nowhere a denial that
However, please continue, David. I look forward to your arguing this thesis: Less money improves systemic issues.
approach this issue with anything resembling scientific rigor. Basically, they’re looking at the relationship between funding and test scores, and they’re not seeing a statistical relationship because they’re not controlling for anything.
The Vedder quote is particularly bad: of course today’s students aren’t better prepared for “work and citizenship” than their grandparents were because there’s so much more to prepare them for. That also explains the USC finding: American students lag in math and science because they don’t spend nearly as many hours in school as students in other countries. And it’s not as if the money we’re spending doesn’t produce results – your sources are cherry-picking statistics to prove their point. US education spending has produced an international lead in the liberal arts, for instance.
On the school hours point: I teach in China, a country that scores well above its income level on math and science. My students arrive at school at 6:30 in the morning and return to their dorms (every Chinese middle-schooler attends boarding school) at 9:30 at night. They’re not doing 15 hours of schoolwork, of course – they have a two-hour lunch and a ninety minute dinner break. But they also attend classes on Saturday morning, Sunday night, and recuperate missed time during holidays by attending school on weekends before and afterward. Winter break is two weeks long, and summer holiday is maybe six weeks long. They’re better students because they spend way more time in school.
Now, you’ll say the difference between the American and Chinese education models is much more complicated than a difference in per-pupil funding levels. And you’d be right. But the sort of methodological changes you’re advocating should be determined by school boards and school administrators, not legislators with limited to no experience in education. And those professionals’ hands are tied by a lack of funding. If you were to seriously propose to a principal or superintendent that she lengthen the school day by even a few hours, she’d laugh in your face – administrators don’t have the money to do that.
The other problem is that a child’s education is a two-way street: it requires engagement from parents as well as teachers. Larry’s spot-on when he lists the problem with funding education through property tax revenues. I’ll take it one step further: not only are areas with lower property values screwed in terms of school finance, they also are home to parents who, because of their work obligations, can’t spend as much time investing in their kids’ education as parents in the suburbs. So kids at Cherry Creek win the lottery twice – they have the best funding and the parents who can spend the most time boosting their educational prospects outside of the classroom. If we’re talking about equitable education (the provision of which is a constitutional obligation of the state legislature), then rural and inner-city schools should actually receive more funding than schools in wealthy suburbs. It’s not about ROI for individual taxpayers – it’s about fair education for kids.
What we have to do is figure out what will improve it, and implement that. And we could well find some initiatives that can improve it will cost money. But let’s figure out what to do before we just throw more money at it.
And yes, less money can force organizations to face systemic issues where they were able to glide by before. This is why recessions are good for businesses – it forces them to improve because of reduced income.
marriage.
but also in rural traditional schools, there are educators – especially those teaching science, social studies, and English – who face retaliation when they cover parts of the state standards that offend evangelicals and political conservatives.
I think it has to be anticipated that gun control bills will be introduced. I personally hope to see a ban on assault weapons and on high-capacity magazines and clips. I’d also like to see a reasonable surtax on all ammunition and firearm sales, the funds to be used to pay for enforcement of gun laws.
It hit someone the same model year vehicle who might drive 3000 mi. a year (think elderly here) as someone who might drive 30,000 mi. a year or more.
But I don’t think it’s an argument that more funding would improve things. We’ve increased funding a ton already and seen no change. We need to first figure out how to improve the system.
But mostly it’s an argument for an equitable distribution of existing funds within the state. Larry’s proposal doesn’t actually call for tax hikes, it suggests a financing overhaul:
“Financial leaders” is pretty vague, and I’d want at least one constitutional expert. But yeah, I think that’s a fantastic idea.
I was not advocating tax hikes. Nor tax cuts. I want the financing studied and improved, wherever that leads. David’s been on this kick…oh, never mind.
The “financial leaders” bit: I guess I was thinking, if financing solutions lead to funding outside taxation, even partially, we need to know from where and how that might come. The problem lies in taxation and it’s inequality. But does the solution lie in taxation alone? Just because it’s public education does not mean it must be wholly underwritten by publicly aggregated funds. Or, it might mean that.
Hell, that’s why I call for other people to address this problem. I don’t have the answers. I’m just a play-pretend legislator.
It’s the use of excellent education and funding in the same sentence that I was responding to. But the equitable part, including help needed for districts so small that some thins become impossible, yes.
Let’s go ahead and get it out of our conversation. Go for broke. Call it quits. If it has to be settled later by the courts, so be it.
It’s like that old locker room objection: Just don’t flaunt it. Etc.
Personally, I’m so fucking sick and tired of my rights being flaunted. One more headline with “Marriage Equality”, “Same Sex Marrige” or “Men Marrying Goats” and I’ll fucking lose it.
So, let’s make it short–and sweet or sour. I’m over it. Other old people, straight or gay, are over it. Societally it’s already settled. It’s just a bunch of (unwarranted) political horseshit from now on. Let’s get to the nub of it and go for broke. Get rid of Amendment 43. That’s all. No vacuous civil unions. That just postpones the inevitable. And makes goats look more attractive every day this drags on.
But I sincerely appreciate your concern.
You’re one of the few who actually get it.
Others reading BC’s post, please feel free to substitute (religious authority) for “Rabbi”. Otherwise, BC pretty much says it all.
Then if it ever snows here again, we’ll see a return of snow tourism.
And I think it does a superb job with what it has to work with.
I’ve seen what my mom does and there’s no way I could even do 10% of that.
ps – For #2 what I think we could change all the financial restrictions to is a limit on total income to the state at a set percentage of the state GDP averaged over 3 or 5 years. So you would still have your vote for tax increases in the constitution.
Is in every interview I’ve done with a state official, when I’ve asked what the ROI is on various legislative initiatives, I’m told no one knows.
But my second grade teacher scolded me for coloring outside the lines. And I’ve been scarred–scarred, I say–ever since.