Ritter

The spring’s tea party chants are being updated to oppose the state’s new car fees. The expression is important for the emotion and general impressionistic anti-government feelings it conveys. It doesn’t have to make any sense. “Governor Ritter hates my car!” “We won’t pay taxes or fees!” “Down with the nanny state!” “Especially if the [...]

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter’s first State of the State speech was about dreams. His second was about reality.

Discussion leader Bill Fulton asked participants at the governor’s school dropout prevention summit to “imagine a Colorado education system where no one drops out.”

At this point, a solution to the state’s scandalously low high school graduation rate remains just that — a dream.

Getting politicians to talk about tax increases is like trying to turn cougars into house cats.

It just ain’t natural.

So as the costs for improvements in transportation, health care distribution and competitive universities grow by the billions, Colorado’s leaders still act coy about the kind of revenue-raising measure they might have to take to the voters [...]

If you’re talking to a member of the governor’s blue ribbon transportation commission and the conversation begins, “Transportation is like comfortable underwear,” you’ll know they’re sticking to their talking points.

The number of votes still needed to override the president’s veto of expanded kids’ health insurance  keeps changing. But 48 hours from a House of Representatives decision that Colorado Congressman Mark Udall calls “the most important this year on the domestic front,” the line seems drawn.

Support for the bi-partisan plan to cover more children whose [...]

A sense of d

It is too soon to proclaim Bill Ritter Colorado’s Teflon governor. But it is safe to say that his Republican opposition has yet to find a way to truly hurt him politically.

“He’s in a place where he’s not been nicked,” said pollster and political analyst Rick Ridder.

Ridder’s firm, RBI Strategies & Research, surveyed 500 likely [...]

This column comes with an upfront disclaimer.
I recently lost my job because I had no union protection.
Had I been in the bargaining unit, the boss who “involuntarily separated” me from my post could not have laid me off without first canning everyone in my job classification with less seniority.
You know, last [...]

There has been a myriad of proposals to change the process to disbursement of state severance taxes and federal mineral lease funds in the legislature this year. In response, Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village proposed convening a special legislative committee to study how mineral severance tax dollars are collected, allocated and spent.

Some officials on the [...]