Category Archives: Editorial
Carroll: Averting a Colorado budget smashup
Why don’t we save the esteemed Dan Ritchie and his bipartisan group of civic-minded bigwigs a lot of time and trouble?
The former chancellor at the University of Denver and his allies who’ve founded Building a Better Colorado are going to spend months in meetings and outreach trying to identify measures for next year’s ballot to address the unique challenges in governing this state.
They’ve got former governors, senators and mayors on board, not to mention current Gov. John Hickenlooper.
To read the rest of this article, click the following link:
http://www.denverpost.com/carroll/ci_28720814/carroll-averting-colorado-budget-smashup
Blake: Sabotaging TABOR comes down to a single subject
Blake: Sabotaging TABOR comes down to a single subject
When it comes to sabotaging TABOR, term limits and the initiative process, the usual suspects tend to round themselves up.
The latest group, called “Building a Better Colorado,” is fronted by the otherwise estimable Dan Ritchie, who served 15 years as chancellor of the University of Denver, taking no pay and donating his $50 million ranch to the school.
The organization intends to hold “town hall meetings” throughout the state and produce a report recommending changes by year’s end.
Presumably most of these changes would necessitate ballot initiatives, since it’s hard to get the two-thirds majorities needed in the legislature to place referendums.
By proposing initiatives they are going to have to confront the awkward single-subject rule. More on that later.
Despite the clarity of their goals, the reformers like to talk in tiptoe-through-the-tulips terms. “It is subtle,” Gail Klapper of the Colorado Forum told The Denver Post, adding the discussions are about “nuanced changes” allowing Colorado “to move forward in the way we all want it to go.”
The Colorado Forum is just one of several civic groups behind Ritchie’s efforts. Its goals aren’t that subtle. It says on its Web site that “Colorado’s fiscal system has a structural imbalance — created by inherently conflicting constitutional mandates — that will continue to result in a widening gap between General Fund revenue and necessary expenditures.”
However “necessary” might be defined. The Forum goes on to recommend that TABOR-mandated refunds to the people be postponed and “revenue sources” not subject to the revenue cap be considered. Presumably that means imposing more “fees” instead of taxes that require a popular vote.
Patriotism
Aurora right to walk away from appeal on Gaylord tax vote
Aurora officials last week were wise to walk away from an appeal of a February court ruling that invalidated the creation of a special tax district for the Gaylord Rockies Hotel and Conference Center.
The creation of the district was a farce and clearly subverted the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which stipulates that local governments cannot raise taxes without voter approval.
Only one voter cast a ballot in the election in 2011 that created the taxing district, which would have collected increased lodger taxes and admission taxes on land set aside for the hotel.
That voter wasn’t even a resident of the city but a representative of the owner of the land where the hotel is to be built.
To read the rest of this article, click the following link:
http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_28682010/aurora-right-walk-away-from-appeal-gaylord-tax
TABOR 101
800 YEARS STRIVING FOR FREEDOM
800 YEARS STRIVING FOR FREEDOM
Eight hundred years ago on 15 June 1215, the English people compelled King John to endorse the Great Charter – Magna Carta. The Great Charter confirmed the ancient rights of “all the community.” So what? Magna Carta is the foundation of America’s Constitution, our defense against tyranny, corruption and civil decay.
English people rebelled against King John’s lawless, inept, profligate and despotic government. For years they had struggled to restrain John’s abuses, reminding him of the solemn contract to which he had sworn at his coronation.
Magna Carta enumerated specific rights so that henceforth neither a ruler nor his officials could legally sidestep their obligations. Magna Carta stipulated that they were, like all the people, subject to the law. No one is above the law. That was the fundamental point of the Great Charter.
Magna Carta was Europe’s first written constitution, a thorough reform grounded in the ancient understanding that the people ruled through their chosen leader, who retained office only to the extent that he fulfilled his sworn duties and honored the law. It is the foundation of individual freedom and our bulwark against arbitrary despotism.
History is our story. History reveals people’s recurring efforts toward a balance of leadership’s role and individual liberty. Freedom requires constant, courageous vigilance. Freedom requires each individual’s active commitment, again and again.
Today, nurtured in our culture of individual liberty, we may not recognize that it is rooted in centuries of courageous striving and thus merits our continued reverence.
So, please celebrate freedom on 15 June.
Peg Brady
TABOR Committee and TABOR Foundation Board member
Guest Commentary: Freedom’s 800th birthday
|