U.S. Senate
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(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
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(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
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(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
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(D) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
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(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
August 16, 2011 06:59 PM UTC
25 Comments
And that’s a big if.
It’s no surprise that Coloradans will support a ballot initiative aimed at helping education. We’ve done it with A23, we’ve done it with Ref C, which was sold in large part by the education community.
The hesitation comes from not wanting to bust ass to sell another ballot initiative that doesn’t create a long-term fix. It lets voters think they did, just like Ref C. So five years from now, we’re back out — hat in hand — asking them to fix again the thing they thought they already fixed.
So this underdog is just a dog. With all due respect to Sen. Heath’s hard work and clear passion for the issue, I can’t keep supporting initiatives that don’t provide solutions and really just kick the can down the road in the worst possible way.
and the Gallagher amendment need to be repealed. We need to have an adequate revenue base for the state to function.
and that’s a long shot.
That would be courts.
but not Gallagher. Ever. There are far more home owners than business owners.
That’s why I’m voting against it. We need a structural solution, not band-aids.
“I’m sorry, kiddo, but you need a structural solution for your wound, not a band-aid. You’ll just have to bleed a while while I work on some other stuff and hope someone comes up with a solution to your problem.”
Let’s not waste our energy on something that will not fix the problem and turn people off to actually fixing the problem. We are, IIRC, 49th (!) in funding our schools, and Rollie’s proposal changes that . . . how? It doesn’t.
All Rollie’s proposal does is annoy everyone when we have to go back when it expires and ask for more. Make it permanent and I support it. But a short term fix, which will only make things WORSE when it expires is even worse.
Dems have been running scared for reasons beyond my comprehension–it’s like we’re afraid to actually articulate what we believe and why. I’m over it.
What makes you think there’ll be political will for a solid gold prosthetic?
specious.
Why waste political capital on something that will make things worse down the road?
How does raising taxes a bit make things worse down the road? Even with the sunset, it’s hard to see how that “makes things worse” than they are now.
is that it’s a waste of political capital to pass a ballot initiative that is a short-term fix rather than a long-term solution.
The political establishment has been wary of Heath’s initiative because it won’t do very much to solve the long-term fiscal problems the state faces, but it will open Democrats to accusations of being tax-and-spend liberals next year or three years from now when they’re trying to run for re-election.
There’s certainly some validity to those concerns. The will of the voters has been pointed to for several different issues related to ballot initiatives. Republicans have pointed to the voters shooting down Ref. I as a reason for not supporting Civil Unions, as well as the voters shooting down tax increases in the forms of Amendments 53 and 58 in 2008.
You don’t earn political capital by sitting around waiting for something to happen. You earn political capital by winning something. People like winners.
what do schools do then? They will wind up having to cut everything Uncle Rollie’s proposal allowed them to do, and, most likely, then some.
Basically, they go begging again. Let’s find the will to address them properly NOW. Raise taxes to where we can actually fund K-12 and, god forbid, higher education also. While we’re at it, let’s fix our $@!#ing roads, which are a total embarassment.
It’s time to go on a major offensive, not to try to tiptoe around the elephant in the room.
What if Heath’s initiative does pass? Doesn’t that show that Hickenlooper is wrong and the voters do have an appetite for tax increases to make investments in education (and potentially other areas like infrastructure)?
Wouldn’t a harder push with the two or three initiatives it would take to try to repeal TABOR have much higher risks involved?
If you’re going to go, go big. Just for example, it gives the GOP just as much ammunition to request a permanent state income tax rate increase as it does to request a temporary one.
Basically, we Dems have been too afraid to ask for a dollar–so we ask for a dime and then whine when we only get a nickel. Ask for the whole dollar, and we’re likely to get fifty cents–which puts us WAY ahead of just getting the nickle. Of course it’s not that simple–that’s just for illustration.
The problem is that Dems have been too afraid, even in the 2008 landslide, to forcefully articulate some of the required steps the US has to take, and in the process it has become totally milquetoast.
Fortune favors the brave is a good saying–and it’s one the Dems seem to have forgotten.
Arise, go forth, and conquer . . . because the GOP simply CANNOT COMPETE ON CONTENT.
/rant
But I’ll still vote for this because it gives us some breathing room while we try to help our other elected members grow a pair.
for this vitally important legislation.
If CEA is actually coming on board with some serious funding, then this has a shot. If they are just adding their name to a list it’s worth a few lines in the paper that they endorsed…and nothing else.
This initiative has our full support. Of the entire community. 101%!
If this is all that Colorado’s business community (whatever that incredibly broad-brush group might actually look like) will support, then where are the chambers and others? They aren’t there for the same reason that others aren’t. It’s not a solution. It’s a problem later.
And for those who worry that we’ve got to do something right now, I’d suggest spending your time and energy pushing our elected leaders (come on Gov. Hickenlooper) to put forward a real path to a solution and do some legislative wrangling in the meanwhile to stave off immediate disaster. It’s not like they haven’t been shuffling the deck chairs on the state budget Titanic for a number of years anyway.
If this passes, that calls them on their excuse making.
The chambers aren’t there not because this is not a solution. They are just plain not there. They sure as hell are not working for a permanent solution.
And Hickenlooper was pushed. He said “eh” and went back to shuffling the deck chairs.
If you are waiting for them for a solution, in five years we will still be searching for a permanent solution, but without five years of increased revenue.