| By KJ Meyer - Jan 8th, 2008 at 10:32 am EST |
| Also listed in: Adams County | Arapahoe County | Boulder County Progress | Broomfield County | Smart Energy |
As legislators gear up to tackle large fiscal shortfalls in Colorado this spring the same question keeps coming up each time….how are we going to pay for this?
Tomorrow as the Colorado General Assembly begins it’s 2008 session they will start dealing with how to prioritize improvements in health care, transportation, and both secondary and higher education. Also on their plate are topics such as Colorado’s response to global warming, agriculture issues, immigration reform, and fixing the state constitution.
Meanwhile, Governor Ritter is entering his second year of office. While widely popular coming out of his firs year, many of the of the blue ribbon panels he set up to report on issues like education, transportation, and health care are starting to report back.
The verdict: we need money – to the tune of $3 billion more a year.
So it appears the honeymoon for the Governor may be over and the real work is about start because laying in the path to these reforms are the morass of constitutional provisions limiting state spending, a hesitant state electorate when it comes to tax increases, and a host of pundits who like to remind of us of both.
GOOD LUCK!
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Can Colorado pay for this through bonds?
Is the problem semantic in nature?
Bonds sound a lot less "frightening" than the word "tax" due to the nagging Republican phobia that they have been pedaling for the last thirty years.
I haven't really decided if your comment is tongue-in-cheek or not, but I've had enough of people who believe that borrowing money is the key to prosperity, with you-know-who at the top of the list.
Our big problem is the TABOR amendment. That's what's turning our state into a third-world coundry, if you will, and destroying our schools and supports for people with disabilities.
Did you know that we have a waiting list of several years for disabled children to get so-called "Medicaid waivers" for therapies and programs? We're right up there with Mississippi, and last time I checked, we were 49th out of 50 in the United States.
Disgraceful!