Today is Thursday, May 17, 2012

Budget

Denver Post’s spend and tax Big Government Republicans, Democrats want higher taxes

 

The Denver Post editorial page writer, Alicia Caldwell, continues to hype the findings of its panel of former members of the Colorado General Assembly. I posted the following in the comment section that follows the Post's defense of the panel's feckless findings:

 

With all due respect, the Big Government spend and tax Republicans and Democrats on the Panel fufilled the mission that the Big Government Denver Post editorial board gave them. 

 

The mission was to justify higher taxes, protect bloated government programs, call for increased spending on K-12 education and try to stop spending cuts in higher education, subsidies and tax credits for special interests and cuts in spending on transportation. 

 

Mission accomplished. The panel's report is credible only in the eyes of its members, a few Denver Post editorial writers, public employee unions, the Denver Metro Chamber and contractors and academics who slop at the public trough.

 

Even the Republicans on the General Assembly Joint Budget Committee appear to be protecting their contributors in the gimme community of government contractors. Frank McNulty, the Speaker of the House, a GOP lawyer, refuses to restructure and cut K-12 education spending and delay new spending on roads, bridges and infrastructure. He's even protecting the increase in the car tax, which the transportation lobby loves. However, Speaker McNulty said last week that higher education will take a spending cut this year.

 

Colorado continues to look like an Illinois wannabe.

 

Politicians have neither the skills nor the credibility to fix the state budget in ways that will encourage consumers to spend and businesses to grow in Colorado. 

 

What Hick and the legislature should do is hire Bain or some other strong management consulting company (not the big accounting firms) that doesn't work for state or federal governmental agencies to put together a turnaround plan. 

 

What the Post should do is hire two or three strong private sector economists, budget analysts and strategists to write a series of articles that show the public and the politicians how Colorado's laws and regulations can be changed. 

 

Show how the laws and budgets can be fixed so that Colorado won't follow Illinois, NY, California and other states into some form of default or bankruptcy. It is clear that the current editorial page staff doesn't have a clue.

 

Frankly, if you haven't figured it out already, I think the Post's panel did a tremendous disservice to Colorado. It was disingenuous and dishonest about what can and should be done. Maybe the panel's members just don't know any better.

Frank McNulty backs Dick Wadhams for chair of Colorado GOP, opposes medical pot bill

Colorado House Speaker Frank McNulty said this morning that he backs Dick Wadhams for re-election as chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. McNulty told a breakfast meeting of the Arapahoe County Republican Mens (and women's) Club that Wadhams did a  very good job navigating Colorado Republicans through the 2010 elections. "Dick is the right guy to lead us through the 2012 elections," McNulty said. Wadhams has announced that he is running for a third two-year term as chair. A new GOP central committee will elect the state pary's chair on March 13.

In response to my question, McNulty also said that he opposes the Medical Marijuana bill (HB 1043), which would make it easier to grow, sell, prescribe and buy pot. He said pot legislation "will go through several iterations" in the 2011 session of the General Assembly.

In response to a question about cutting the car tax increase that was enacted last year, McNulty said cutting would be a symbolic victory and that he is focused on winning real victories, not symbolic ones. In other words, he's not going to make repealing FASTER or cutting the car tax until he achieves his major goals.

McNulty said that the top priority for House Republicans is to cut state spending and to reform job killing regulations on the oil and gas and other industries. His second and fall back priority, he said, is to stop the Democrat-controlled Senate and Gov. John Hickenlooper from increasing spending.

However, McNulty said, he is not for cutting spending on K-12 education.

Higher education is another story, he said. The most money in the state budget that can be cut goes for higher education, which will take a hit, McNulty said.

When I asked whether the legislature can take power away from the faculty in higher education so that they no longer can block cost cutting efforts, McNulty said that Republicans will try to give the top executives and boards of the state's universities and community colleges more power to cut costs by reforming civil service laws that make it very difficult for them to layoff people. 

I hope to post clips of McNulty's comments this evening.

LINKS:

Medical Marijuana (HB11-1043.

Haley Barbour imposes budget cuts on Mississippi after 2 tax hikes; lessons for Colorado

As Governor-elect John Hickenlooper and the General Assembly's joint budget committee ponder Colorado's $1.1 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning next July 1, they will study the good intentions and outcomes of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's long efforts to deal with declining revenues and soaring Medicaid expenditures. Barbour's a possible presidential candidate for 2012. He has a take a "nothing's untouchable" approach to budget cutting, notes The Wall Street Journal. State tests limits of spending cuts, by Deborah Solomon.

Colorado Republicans take state’s House; Dems control state Senate

Colorado's Republicans apparently have taken control of the state's House, but not the Senate. This will give the GOP a small say in the redistricting of the state in 2011, but the Democrats will pretty much have their way with a Democrat-controlled Senate, a Democrat governor and a Democrat-controlled state Supreme Court. At the least, the House Republicans should be unified enough to keep Hickenlooper and the Senate Demcrats from raising taxes or fees, but they won't get any  tax cuts passed. Time will tell whether the very liberal spend and tax Senate will work with the Republicans and Governor-elect John Hickenlooper to cut spending, not just the rate of growth in spending.

No tax increases; restructure Colorado’s government, says Tom Tancredo

During the last six years, Democrats in Colorado's legislature and Democrat Governor Bill Ritter have sharply increased taxes and expanded the costly Medicaid program. Tom Tancredo today promised about 200 supporters in Littleton that he will not increase taxes to fix the state's budget deficit. He called for restructuring Medicaid and other Colorado governmental programs. New Direction Colorado is doing robo calls today promoting Tancredo's promise to not cut taxes.

Colorado Senate Republicans promise to modernize, streamline, reduce size of state’s government

Chances are growing that Republicans will take over Colorado's House and Senate. Here's the agenda of the Senate Republicans:

John Hickenlooper’s ‘voluntary tax’ on oil and gas industry would be ‘extortion,’ Tom Tancredo says

During last Friday's debate, John Hickenlooper said that he would fund higher education in Colorado with a "voluntary tax" on the highly regulated oil and gas exploration and production industries in the state.

That would be "extortion", charged Tom Tancredo, who has promised to not raise any taxes or fees if he is elected governor. Tancredo pointed out that because if Hickenlooper becomes governor and asks the oil and gas industry to accept a voluntary tax, they would have no choice to but to agree. If they didn't agree to the voluntary tax, Hickenlooper would impose even tougher regulations on them than Gov. Bill Ritter has. The Ritter regulations on Colorado's oil and gas producers has cost the state thousands of jobs, according to Repubicans. Democrats say the jobs have been lost because of sharply depressed natural gas prices. There's some truth in both arguments. Tancredo spoke to a rally in Littleton Saturday evening.

Tom Tancredo’s closing arguments

Colorado voters have a once in a lifetime opportunity to take advantage of the state's looming budget deficits and use them to shrink government in the state, Tom Tancredo told about 150 people who attended his rally in Loveland Saturday. In what amounted to his closing argument, Tancredo warned that if liberals Democrats are elected, they will try to raise taxes instead of cutting Colorado's government spending. Tancredo, the American Constitution Party candidate for governor who is supported by nearly 80% of Republicans, also promised to improve school choice for parents and to make other educational reforms.

Obama Democrats run Denver Post; back spend & tax nanny staters, John Hickenlooper, Michael Bennet

The Denver Post is proud to be Colorado's liberal paper, and it's not the only paper controlled by the Left in the state. Under the pretense of backing the best men (which is debatable), John Hickenlooper for governor and Michael Bennet for the U.S. Senate, the Post is showing that Obama Democrats are in charge of the Post's editorial page. This is even though there are three conservatives on its editorial board.

Walker Stapleton promises to bring fiscal sanity to Colorado as state Treasurer

Walker Stapleton comes from a long line of Colorado civic leaders and politicians, and he has the financial experience and skills to greatly improve operations in the state Treasurer's office. 

Why government employes’ unions back Michael Bennet, Ed Perlmutter, John Salazar, Betsy Markey

Unions that represent teachers and other employes of municipal, state and federal government agencies back Democrats who let the unions make sure that organized government workers can overpay themselves and give themselves expensive health benefits and pensions that are bankrupting cities, states and the U.S. government.

Vail Daily: Small-gov’t fans oppose 60, 61, 101

Vail Daily: Small-gov't fans oppose 60, 61, 101.

Steamboat Today: ‘NO’ on Amendments 60, 61, Proposition 101

Steamboat Today says: Vote "NO" on Amendments 60 and  61, Proposition 101.

Gubernatorial candidates still don’t know how to cut Colorado’s budget, stimulate its economy

The most remarkable thing about this year's gubernatorial campaign in Colorado is that the candidates talk about cutting the state's budget and stimulating jobs, but they don't know how they will get either job done. At least they're not communicating their approaches very well.

Cary Kennedy wants to continue bankrupting Colorado with more spending on schools

Everyone knows that the most expensive public school districts, including Denver and Washington, DC, produce some of the nation's least educated kids. Yet, Cary Kennedy, the author of Colorado's Amendment 23, which requires increases in spending on schools regardless of whether Colorado has the money, doesn't get it even though she's been the state's Treasurer for four years and is seeking a second term. She's a traditional spend and tax Democrat who looks out for teachers but not students, parents or taxpayers. You can see this in her new ad: