Official testifies in TABOR lawsuit that more money collected as a result of mill levy freeze

By Berny Morson

Rocky Mountain News

State treasurer Cary Kennedy conceded today on the witness stand that a bill passed last year by the legislature alters the way taxes are calculated with the net result that many property owners pay more.

But Kennedy continued to insist the 2007 law, SB 199, does not violate Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

Kennedy's testimony came on the second day of a lawsuit brought by opponents of the 2007 law. They say SB 199 should have been referred to voters under TABOR provisions.

The 1992 Constitutional amendment allows tax increases only with approval at the ballot box....

Read full story: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/06/tax-receipts-went/ 

State Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, said the Joint Budget Committee, which sets spending priorities for the state, cut the budget from $276,000 last year to $220,000 for the next fiscal year beginning July 1. They cut the $60,000 travel budget in half after records obtained by The Associated Press showed the elected eight-member panel took 17 state employees, including themselves, and 11 others to dine at a restaurant in Telluride that cost taxpayers $2,028.

According to board records, chairwoman Pamela Jo Suckla alone spent $26,000 for travel expenses and Evie Hudak claimed $11,316, according to the records obtained by the AP.

Colorado Springs Gazette staff editorial 

Some of the same Colorado Democrats who want health care reform, promising to make it more available and affordable, support a proposal by trial lawyers that would run up the cost of care and aggravate a doctor shortage that has only begun.

Politicians who feign support for affordable health care, while supporting Senate Bill 164, are either confused or they’re lying. Either way, they’re paying favor to trial lawyers — a loyal constituency — while selling out the cause of health care for all.

The three Democrats on the Senate’s five-member State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee recently voted to move forward with Senate Bill 164, which would substantially increase the awards granted by judges and juries in malpractice suits. If the bill passes, doctors would be hit with increases in their malpractice insurance premiums. Senate President Peter Groff introduced the bill, and Sens. Abel Tapia, Chris Romer and Sue Windels voted it through committee.

Colorado Springs Gazette editorial 

We’re underwhelmed by the economic development agenda Gov. Bill Ritter rolled out to much fanfare Tuesday. These proposals have about as much chance of heating up Colorado’s business climate as Ritter’s windmill farms have of cooling the planet.

A few of the ideas might do some good at the margins. The rest seem like a warmed-over hash of half-measures and corporate welfare “incentives” that are more symbolic than substantive. The glowing reviews they received from some business leaders betray laughably low expectations on their part.

By Ed Sealover 

Colorado's road funding is about to experience unprecedented losses, but residents apparently still do not consider it a crisis, state legislators learned Tuesday. 

For the first time, all three of the main funding sources for state roads - the gas tax, federal revenues and a spillover account in the state budget - are set to decline at once, Colorado Department of Transportation Executive Director Russ George said. 

Lower-than-expected federal revenues also could fall $80 million more, decimating construction and paving projects. 

Still, a recent survey by the group Move Colorado showed that while voters are beginning to see transportation as a more pressing issue, they aren't ready yet to raise taxes, executive director Randy Harrison said. ...

Read full story: http://www.rockymountainnews.com

Online voter registration? Maybe, but not with Senate Bill 40

Rocky Mountain News editorial

A bedrock principle of democracy is one person, one vote. And the integrity of elections depends in large part on voter records that are accurate and up-to-date, so that only those people eligible to vote are allowed to exercise the franchise.

Unfortunately, a measure is moving forward in the legislature that would undermine the security procedures that protect voter registration records; it would invite mischief or even fraud that would be difficult to detect - and thus difficult to prevent.

Senate Bill 40, which passed an initial committee vote last week, would allow anyone (not necessarily registered voters, Colorado residents or even U.S. citizens) to change voter registration records online at the secretary of state's Web site....

Full editorial:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/12/an-invitation-to-fraud/

Rocky Mountain News staff editorial 

...A 2008 high school graduate entering the work force indeed faces daunting intellectual challenges that his or her parents and grandparents did not. A teenager needs more than a strong back and a sound work ethic to assure a stable, decent-paying career.

That quest must begin, it seems to us, with students acquiring a facility in the language upon which most of those careers depend. That's why it's encouraging to see the legislature again consider a bill requiring graduates from Colorado high schools to demonstrate competence in English.

This year, unlike 2007, the measure is likely to reach Gov. Bill Ritter, whose proposal for school reforms announced earlier this year include English competency as a graduation requirement.

Senate Bill 98, by Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, does not explicitly define competence, leaving that to individual school districts and the state's charter school institute. It does suggest that every graduate should be able to understand government and commercial documents; a student should at a minimum be able to fill out a voter registration form or open a bank account....

Full editorial: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/feb/27/first-things-first/ 

Rocky Mountain News staff editorial

...A bill pending in the state Senate threatens to unravel Colorado's "stable" environment for medical liability law - and it could undermine Gov. Bill Ritter's plans to expand health care coverage for low-income Coloradans.

Senate Bill 164, by Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, would boost the award a patient can receive for pain and suffering (noneconomic damages) in medical malpractice lawsuits from $300,000 to nearly $450,000. That's a big leap, even if some adjustment to account for inflation may well be in order.

Far more disturbing is that the bill would add a new tier of damages in these cases that could blow the lid off of the reasonable limits the legislature had placed on most jury awards....

Read full editorial: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/feb/20/wrong-way-on-damages/ 

Perceived bias leads industry to organize

By Steve Raabe Denver Post Staff Writer

Colorado oil and gas producers are organizing to influence government policy in reaction to concerns about a perceived anti-energy bias in the state.

Chief among their worries are a reconstituted oil-and-gas commission that reduces energy- industry representation, efforts to delay a plan for drilling on the scenic Roan Plateau in western Colorado, and a movement to stop natural-gas production in Moffat County's Vermillion Basin.

"This vital, growing industry is threatened by overregulation," said Fred Barrett, chief executive of oil-and-gas producer Bill Barrett Corp. "We as an industry need to find better ways to tell the public what the costs of certain public-policy decisions are."