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May 15, 2007 06:23 PM UTC

Al White: Republicans are Wrong on Property Tax Freeze

  • 29 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols


As The Craig Daily Press reports:

Al White supports a new tax law that will boost local funding for school districts across Colorado even though that position places him at odds with many in his Republican Party.

“Most of my party is not on the Joint Budget Committee,” White said Saturday in Steamboat Springs.

White is a Winter Park resident who has represented Northwest Colorado at the Capitol for seven years. He recently ended his first year as one of two Republicans on the state’s powerful, six-member Joint Budget Committee, which oversees Colorado’s finances. White said serving on the committee gave him a firsthand look at a dire financial forecast for K-12 education in Colorado. As a result, White disagrees with state Republican leadership about one of the hottest topics to come out of the 2007 legislative session — the School Finance Act recently signed into law by Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat…

… “We’ve got to do something,” White said about K-12 funding in Colorado. “I don’t know what other solution is out there. This is a solution that will slow the shift to state funding for local school districts.”…

… White said Republican opposition to the act did not sway his votes.

“This is not about partisanship, this is about the issue,” he said.

Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams has said repeatedly that he wants to make the property tax freeze an election issue in 2008, but it’s getting harder and harder to use it as an attack when Republicans proposed the same plan two years ago and a Republican on the JBC is in favor of this year’s version.

Comments

29 thoughts on “Al White: Republicans are Wrong on Property Tax Freeze

    1. Some R’s are starting to get a real spine, no longer paying homage to the Wad Dickems’ line.  There have always been a few, but the list seems to be getting longer.

      Maybe they are paying attention to the voters generally and not just the CD5 noise machine.

      Good for Al.

    2. I have been one of the bigger R bashers here, so yes, it appears that some are capable of making good choices.

      Just one of my issues is that when I moved here in ’79, Colorado was building a decent school system. They had moved to building up a decent infrastructure without pushing California type taxes. Our schools kept improving. Over the last decade and in particular, over the last 8 years, primary and secondary schooling has deteriorated in line with our tax base. All in all, we have turned a school system that was heading towards being top notched into a Texas or Mississippi school system.  Hopefully, with proper funding, this can be turned around. It is good to see that we have true republicans rather than neo-cons who want to destroy everything.

  1. Al, you know what Republicans get for not towing the Whaddams line!  Just watch your back!  You KNOW the GOP has no room for individual, critical thought!  If you are not an ideologue then you are a traitor!  Think independently at your own risk!

    1. Al is a great legislator and sponsors useful bills. It is gutsy for him to say this and a bit dangerous as the Republican party did primary out a moderate county commissioner last year. But that was in Grand county.  If White is looking to possibly run for Taylor’s seat, he loses Grand county in favor of Eagle county.

  2. I’d vote for Sen. Jack Taylor ( R – Steamboat Springs) as my favorite Republican. That does not mean I would vote for him at the ballot box, I just really like the guy on some issues.

    As for Al White, I respect him for this stand he’s taking. Add that to the two other things going for him that I really like as well.

    1. According to their website, he is NOT listed as a member of the right-wing Republican Study Committee of Colorado.

    http://www.rscc.us/W

    2. In 2005, when Rep. Jim Welker ( gosh! I get misty just typing his name ‘cuz I miss the fella) argued that people choose to be gay, Al White was one of the few Republicans who publicly embarrassed him. 

    From the May 4 2005 Colorado Springs Gazette,

    “Sexual orientation, in my opinion, is a choice,” Welker said. “People make choices on a lot of things. You can make choices to be an adulterer. You can make a decision to be a smoker.”

    Welker’s comments earned open ridicule from members of his own party.

    “I can’t choose to be a homosexual, because I’m a heterosexual,” said Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, to Welker. “I’d be surprised if you could wake up tomorrow and be a homosexual. I’m not sure what you are talking about with regard to choice.”

    Having said that, I would still not vote for him. At the end of the day he pledges allegiance to the party of Tancredo, Wiens, Lamborn, GWB, and Musgrave. And with that in mind, when it comes to picking sides on many issues, he votes party-line with all the other R’s.

    But I respect the guy for taking a stand on this issue.

    1. Your sentiment of having a republican that you like, but would never vote for, is why Republicans no longer strain themselves to appeal to the left and try to turn out their base for elections.  If someone will respect a moderate Republican but not cross over and vote for one, what incentive is there to be a moderate?

      1. Statistically, Mr. White is still going to vote with the majority of Republicans the overwhelming majority of the time.  No, I don’t need to look that up.  Even the most “maverick” within either Party votes party-line more than 70% of the time.

        So if your goal is to get more votes on the issues you care about, it would be very poor strategy to vote for someone from the other Party.  Ever.

        But people still do it, and if it makes you feel “independent”  to pick a Republican once in a while (or a Democrat, in your case), that’s your business.

      2. I will vote for a Republican I respect for several reasons:

        1) It encourages Republican’s to reach out to Democrats and compromise.

        2) A strong competitive 2 party system keeps both parties working to do a good job because otherwise the other wins.

        3) The best laws come from principled thoughful discussion by people with different points of view. We get better laws by having some legislators we do not agree with.

        – dave

        1. May I ask if or which Republicans you’ve voted for?  I’ve only voted for a couple….the last one was Salazar in 2004, but I probably won’t vote for him again if he has a challenger that’s better than Coors.  Other than that, I haven’t voted for a Dem since I was in Washington State.

          1. where I voted for Republicans. One was running for Port of Seattle commissioner (I don’t remember the name, but even the left wing media said the individual was much better suited for the job than the Democratic opponent) and one was Sam Reed, Sec’y of State who wisely let the governor’s race recount in 2004 go forward without any interference which was all the proof I needed that I voted for the right person.

            I haven’t had any Colorado races where the GOP person wasn’t someone very definitely outside my consideration, but the Colorado GOP is harder right wing than the Washington GOP was (although they had their nuts, like the person in the state house who basically wanted to make divorce impossible…)

          2. …you mean that you voted for a Dem even though being a Republican.

            I think that the only Republicans that I have voted for have been in non-legislative offices.  The problem with “crossing over” is not so much the man or woman in question, but that then the balance changes in whatever body they are joining.

            When K. Salazar runs again I probably won’t be living here, so things are hypothetical.  If I’m here, I will either vote for a Republican, if very moderate like Gov. Charlie Crist of FL, or not vote for the office.  Why not have the real thing?

          3. For any Boulder races I tend to vote Republican/Libertarian/Green. Anything but Democrat just to encourage them to keep challanging the Dems. Now if one of those races ever become competitive, then I’ll look more closely.

            I voted for Bill Owens when he ran for re-election. I thought he was doing a good job and I thought he was much better for education which is the key to our future.

            1. To Ari, the pubs in WA are a different breed, which wasn’t always a bad thing.  I voted for a Dem for DA in Pierce County, in the open primary and the general election.

              Salazar was the only legislative Dem I’ve voted for.

              How about President, would any of you consider voting Republican?  To be honest, it would have to be an extrodinary situation for me to vote for a Dem (like if Gingrich is our nominee…)

              Again, just curious

              1. as he is a) demonstrably moderate and b) an accomplished executive. Some here have pooh-poohed his experience but all you need to do is spend some time in NYC and really get to know how things work to appreciate what it takes to be mayor. Hell, it’s got to be every bit as relevant as the gubernatorial experience the American electorate has shown favor for with every president since Carter (excepting Poppy Bush).

                But I had reservations. First, being a law-and-order type as Rudy is typically means being somewhat hostile to civil liberties (and during his tenure as mayor there was no shortage of claims that his policies violated them); his comments at the debate surely did nothing to alleviate my concerns there, and following the current president we need someone who will respect civil liberties. Second, he’s begun pandering to the base on issues like abortion and gay rights, although I’ve heard (but not read for myself) that he recently went on the record affirming his older stances on the issues. If so, good for him because that’s gutsy. Third, 9/11 did demonstrate one thing – that he possessed true leadership qualities and knew how to maintain grace under pressure. Like him or loathe him, but that’s a quality shared by our greatest crisis presidents (Lincoln and FDR) and not shared by GWB. You want a guy like that in charge when the shit hits the fan.

                Nonetheless, being of my political persuasion it is hard to imagine getting in the voting booth and flipping the switch for him. First of all the next president will undoubtedly appoint at least one justice to SCOTUS. It’s too bad that this august body has become so politicized in the last 50 years but there you are. I don’t know what kind of person Rudy would appoint but it’s food for thought. Secondly, he is a Republican. That puts him further right on most issues that matter to me than just about any Democrat. It would have to be a really sorry nomination on behalf of the Dems for me to actually go through and vote for a Republican and I don’t know if any of the Dem frontrunners strike me as being so bad. (Now, if they nominate Kucinich I could visualize voting for any GOP frontrunner…)

                1. It’s nice to see your insight on the matter.  Presidents are a lot different then say….a state representative-it’s harder to visualize a switch for just one election.  Maybe it’s because the nomination process for president is better-there is probably a lesser chance of getting a real crazy as your nominee (though there are exceptions, I’m sure).

                  Take Obama for instance.  I like the man personally, and I respect what he stands for.  I like his message, and he has a compelling life story.  I would vote for him over Clinton in any circumstance, but I wouldn’t vote for him over Giuliani, Romney or (gulp!) McCain.  But at the same time, I wouldn’t be tempted to move to Canada 🙂 if he was elected, like I would if Clinton won~

                  1. She’s probably the most conservative of the Democrats running – not Lieberman conservative, but if she pursues economic policies like her husband than any fiscal conservative ought to be satisfied given her Democratic affiliation.

          4. I crossed from voting for anything BUT Dems or Reps (indies and libertarians) to voting for dems this last election. Does that count?

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