September 22, 2009 07:38 PM UTC

Leadership: Colorado's Greatest Deficit

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Grand Junction Sentinel reports, those you hoping for swift action in the face of the state’s deepening budget crisis are going to be disappointed:

Gov. Bill Ritter said Monday that going to the ballot for a tax increase would take too much time and place a burden on people already struggling to make ends meet. He said he’s “not entertaining tax increases” to close the widening chasm between what the state has budgeted and what it can afford. Only temporary fixes or cuts remain as options to balance the budget, a task he promised to accomplish…

This statement from Gov. Bill Ritter (if it wasn’t twisted beyond recognition by the Sentinel) is, safe to say, not going to be recited by schoolchildren. “I will stand up and NOT ask the voters to come together in this time of need! I will do the hard work of temporary fixes!”

You were looking for some FDR hope? Sorry. For whatever reason, that’s just not where we’re at today in the state of Colorado. Is he right? Is there no popular or political will for a comprehensive fix? Or is there no leadership for one?

But in case you’re considering alternatives, there are others, who do view the state’s seemingly bottomless fiscal crisis as an opportunity to lead: backwards, that is.

Filling the new-found gap may take additional furlough days for state employees and layoffs, said Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction. He’s “vehemently and adamantly opposed” to any new taxes.

“It has to be new cuts,” King said. “(Ritter) needs to step up and if it is a cut to the bone, it is a cut to the bone.” [Pols emphasis]

Even with permanent fixes to the $560.7 million shortfall in the present budget year, the state still will have to come up with $748.4 million for the 2010-2011 budget and $1.3 billion if the fixes are not lasting. Those figures do not include inflation, case-load increases or constitutional requirements. That will be a difficult hole to plug with just state employment cuts, said Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison…

Translation: we can’t furlough and lay off our way out of this, Rep. King. He knows that. It’s like a bad movie you can see the whole plot of in the first scene. Will King’s pointless demands for “new cuts” stop him from hypocritically attacking Governor Ritter when those cuts affect his constituents? Will it stop “Juvenile” Josh Penry, the greatest such hypocrite?

But on both sides, the question begs for an answer: why is this the best we can do?