March 20, 2011 08:30 PM UTC

CFPI to Pull Ballot Initiatives

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• by: c rork

It was a beautiful day yesterday, but I opted to stay indoors for a bit to attend one of the State Budget Listening Tour events in Lowry. I had heard that most of the meetings in other parts of the state were well attended. Ours was no exception.

The crowd sounded off to members of the Colorado legislature on a variety of topics; prisons, mental health services, child poverty, medicaid, and above all, the need to raise more revenue. The attendees overwhelmingly agreed that the state is in a systemic, long-term crisis that can only be solved by constitutional reform and shared sacrifice from Colorado’s taxpayers.

Several teachers choked back tears as they talked about class sizes swelling to 38 students and the enormity of the cuts to their districts. Mental health workers described how patients are entering prison in the absence of adequate state services. Even a few Republicans in the crowd were practically begging legislators to avoid cuts to vital services. The town hall was exactly what I expected in the wake of large cuts, though it was still hard to hear some of the stories.

I did not expect to hear what the last speaker, Marijo Rymer, had to say. One of the key proponents for Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute’s ballot measures, she announced that she would be removing all of the proposed ballot measures from the legislative council process. She stated her reasons clearly and concisely; a lack of positive polling, an inability to raise big money and a hostile political climate were all contributing reasons to pull the measures.

It seems inevitable that the most vulnerable of our state have a hard couple of years ahead of them. Sen. Rollie Heath’s attempt to raise $400 million over 3 years seems too meager to back-fill cuts, not worth the effort of a full-fledged campaign and merely a band-aid for long-term fiscal problems. 2012 hardly seems like the year to put a tax hike or constitutional reform on the ballot. The advantages of this year- cheap air time, a short ballot and low turnout- will have disappeared. And once again, Coloradans in favor of sanity will be on the defensive from the sadistic attempts of Jon Caldera to force his misplaced ideological views upon our fair state. God help us.

In the coming years our tax rates, among the lowest in the nation, will clash with our state’s growing need for state services. Colorado’s voters will have to learn one thing the hard way; you can’t have your cake and eat it, too.