Another swipe
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The Independence Institute -- you know, the guys who brought you 'send-em-back' Tom Tancredo, the Andrews/Horowitz higher ed purges and Jessica Corry blacklists, shadily-funded astroturf front groups to oppose FasTracks, renewable energy, school bonds...the list goes on and on. You sent their backward ideas packing last November.
They're back with a fresh round of suggestions for solving the state's budget crisis. Of course, the fact that they openly extoll the virtues of said crisis might raise a few eyebrows...
Then they wonder without irony why nobody listens to them anymore:
If you're wondering why they feel a little dejected --
Answer, Senator: they were the ones insisting there wasn't a problem.
Still, outsourcing for some new ideas produced exactly one strongly worth considering: the 'Reason Foundation' reports that the state could save "$28 million to $42 million by allowing some nonviolent drug offenders to serve time in house arrest or other, less expensive alternatives to prison."
A remarkably compassionate suggestion, and one to be endorsed; fiscal crisis or no. Perhaps someday we can get that sort of thing out of them when their pocketbook isn't threatened...
Jon Caldara, president of the institute, called the recommendations a "menu" for legislators. He expects most to ignore it all after the authors, from the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, hit the Capitol for a press conference today.
"There's a reason the Independence Institute is a political think tank," said Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Golden, the Senate president. "They couldn't get elected to anything . . . they have only simplistic answers."
Senate Minority Leader Mark Hillman, R-Burlington, said he hopes the study helps solve the budget - but he wants specifics.
"The question is," he said, "if it's this simple, where have these folks been for the last two or three years" of budget problems?
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