Referendum C was a major turning point in Colorado Politics. One of many over the last few years. With the Republicans being taken out of power in the state legislature, many have expressed the belief that they may not get their majority back now. TABOR is considered dead. And they even say Owens' Governorship has hurt them in the state. They even say Colorado is a blue state now. This is all in the Denver Post. The fact is Colorado voters vote in those who they believe will bring home the bacon for them. It seems that they believe most Republicans don't anymore. It is also possible that they didn't like power brokers like Grover Norquist poking their noses into our state.
Furthermore, while I respect the idea that they want to be watchdogs and make sure that our Ref C money is spent on the things that we said it would be spent on, I find it interesting that they are so concerned about these things since they campaigned NOT to have them funded.
From the Denver Post:
"Withered" party
"What's happened is, while he's been elected and re-elected, the party apparatus, both at the state and the county level, has really withered," he said. "Some of that is due to (campaign-finance reform). But Gov. Owens has not been effective in leaving behind a strong team when he leaves. In fact, we're much the lesser for his having been in office. It's really one of the sad legacies of Bill having been governor."
The governor's office shrugged off such comments.
"I think the governor's legacy is well intact," said Owens spokesman Dan Hopkins, "and that the accomplishments that he's made for the state will be long remembered after this gentleman's
comments are forgotten." Statehouse Republicans who opposed Referendum C announced they would defend taxpayers from free-spending Democrats by standing guard over the extra $3.7 billion the state is expected to collect over the next five years.
Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, took aim at Democrats in charge of the statehouse and considered the Republican support for Referendum C an aberration.
"Democrats are always united when it comes to a tax increase," he said.
His job, leading the fractious Senate Republicans, will be to make sure that lawmakers keep their promise to voters to use the extra funding for higher education and transportation - two key areas that have been starved by tight budgets since 2001.
"The first thing is to make sure that the money goes to the services that voters were told it would go to," McElhany said. "What is off the table are any new programs."
Read the whole article here:
http://www.denverpost.com/...