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Letters & Op/Eds
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Monday, 24 March 2008 |
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Letter by Sen. Andy McElhany, published in the Denver Post Re: “Traffic jam of ideas for I-70,” March 17 editorial. Thank you for your editorial on the Republican plan to ease chronic congestion along Interstate 70. Our aim is simply to give motorists a real solution for their money: a wider highway and, eventually, a wider Eisenhower Tunnel, too. The Post’s editorial board can be forgiven for confusing our toll plan with a tax. Rest assured, this is not another one of those raids on the public’s pockets masquerading as a “fee.” This is the real deal. The price of our plan to bond the roadwork using toll revenue would be paid by those who drive that stretch, no one else. It is a true user fee. That is not to say Republicans oppose any tax hike for transportation. More taxes could even be even warranted, at times, when a broad swath of the state actually benefits. As we have told the governor, we are open to all reasonable proposals, but we insist that any current or new transportation funding be constitutionally protected by the voters so lawmakers cannot siphon it off to grow other government programs... Read full letter: http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2008/03/21/in-defense-of-republican-plan-for-i-70-traffic/ |
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Saturday, 22 March 2008 |
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Letter by Sen. Dave Schultheis, published in the Colorado Springs Gazette There is no denying that we live in an increasingly small world. Events thousands of miles away impact our daily lives here in Colorado in increasingly far-reaching and sometimes disturbing ways.
In October 2007, the United Nations sponsored the Women Deliver conference in London. The radical activists at this conference argued that the freedom of health care providers to refuse to participate in abortions on the basis of moral, ethical or religious beliefs was a major impediment to their goal of abortion-on-demand without limit or regulation. Significantly, observers of this threeday conference took note of its pervasive anti-religion undertones.
Colorado has become the latest battleground in this war on freedom of conscience in the name of so-called reproductive freedom. Progressive politicians and activists are pushing legislation that would effectively punish and potentially shut down many faith-based hospitals simply because they remain faithful to their deeply held beliefs and tenets, refusing to participate in abortion, contraception and sterilization. Specifically, House Bill 1203 has been introduced to prevent the sale of Lutheran Medical Center and Good Samaritan Medical, both near Denver, to the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, a Catholic health care partnership. Further, House Bill 1173 and Senate Bill 182 would remove the control of faith-based hospitals from their boards and officers and vest it in state officials. |
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Wednesday, 06 February 2008 |
Letter by Sen. Andy McElhany, published in the Denver Post Re: “Better roads may be coming,” Feb. 1 editorial. The Post’s editorial staffers ought to read their own paper’s news reports more carefully. We were not, as a Post editorial concluded, “ ‘flabbergasted’ that [Gov. Bill] Ritter would consider providing any new revenue for our crumbling highway network.” In a rush to be clever, it seems your editorialist may have skipped a line or two. Post reporter Jennifer Brown got it right in her Jan. 31 story, as did our own website, www.coloradosenatenews.com: My Senate GOP colleagues and I were “flabbergasted” that the governor still has no firm proposal for transportation funding after nearly a year of study. Republicans, by contrast, have a plan. Far from opposing new revenue, we are the ones advocating for it - without raising taxes and fees.... Read full letter: http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2008/02/06/what-state-gop-was-really-flabbergasted-about/ |
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Saturday, 19 January 2008 |
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Commentary published in The Rocky Mountain News By Sen. Tom Wiens ...Recent government findings indicate that Colorado has squandered millions of dollars in taxpayer money devoted to enhancing our homeland security efforts here. Fortunately, a new bipartisan effort from the Colorado Senate provides the opportunity for the type of oversight we need to ensure the right direction for our future. Four years have passed since then-Gov. Bill Owens announced his strategy for dispersing more than $156 million in federal funds between different state and local agencies. From the very beginning, I was an outspoken critic, acknowledging what should have been obvious: the strategy lacked sufficient checks and balances and had no vision for an end product to be produced for the people of Colorado with all of this money. Unfortunately, as millions of dollars were divided up among often unaccountable sources, my concerns fell on deaf ears as then-Senate President Joan FitzGerald dismantled the Senate Select Committee on Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness... Read Full Column: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/19/ |
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Monday, 14 January 2008 |
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Commentary published in The Pueblo Chieftain By Sen. Andy McElhany Republicans in Colorado’s Legislature have come together to propose a legislative plan of action for 2008 that takes up the major challenges voters sent us to the State Capitol to address. Importantly, we are proposing practical solutions to our state’s most pressing problems without shifting an even bigger burden onto the taxpaying public. You can find the details of the GOP’s 2008 legislative agenda on the Senate Minority Office’s Web site, www.coloradosenatenews.com , but let me share a few highlights. |
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Thursday, 03 January 2008 |
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Commentary published in The Denver Post By State Rep. Bob Gardner and State Sen. Nancy Spence
Whether he realized it or not, Gov. Bill Ritter left our public services vulnerable to crippling strikes by state employees when he signed an executive order last November allowing unions to collectively bargain with the state government. Some 30,000 state employees, as well as those working at many other public agencies, already had a limited right to strike under Colorado's long-standing Industrial Relations Act. Yet, it was the governor's order that, for the first time, gave those employees something to really strike for: a labor contract locking in across-the-board wages and benefits. The governor says the so-called "partnership" agreements authorized by his executive order will require labor contracts to include no-strike clauses. As a practical matter, those provisions will be meaningless. No-strike clauses are in fact a standard feature in many labor contracts, in both the public sector and in private industry. However, they rarely prevent strikes. That is because they have no effect in those circumstances when most strikes occur: where a contract either has expired or has yet to be reached. |
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Friday, 05 August 2005 |
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Commentary published in The Denver Post By Sen. Andy McElhany Freshman state Rep. Claire Levy's recent call for "radical changes" to our health care system left me wondering just how far she would have us go in pursuit of "universal" health care. My hunch is that she wants the General Assembly to embrace the failed models of some other states and a number of other nations - with dire consequences. Like Canada, where the government is the only insurer - the so-called "single payer" - and patients can wait months for a bypass operation and years for a knee replacement. Or maybe a U.S. state like Tennessee, whose disastrous attempt to reinvent Medicaid hemorrhaged red ink. All took a wrecking ball to the status quo and wound up with a cure worse than the ill. Rushing headlong into radical change is likely to leave us with a bad case of buyer's remorse - busting budgets, inhibiting choices and undermining the quality of care. |
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Faces in the Crowd
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