April 14, 2009 06:18 AM UTC

Why is the state not serious about the recession

• 5 Comments
• by: DavidThi808

Ok, we’re all in agreement that this economy is in a world of hurt. And the state government is in worse shape than most because of TABOR, and the other laws that hamstring what the legislature can do.

But still, the state’s inaction strikes me as the equivilent of just hunkering down and waiting for this to blow over, with maybe the federal stimulus money riding to the rescue.

I’m not denigrating the efforts of the Governor and Legislature as they are all clearly trying. But their entire effort appears to be to operate normally, but with less money.

And yet we could…

1) Where is the effort to make our state government more efficient? That is always step 1 in the private sphere. I don’t see any evidence of this occuring. Where’s the proposed system changes that will enable the state to reduce headcount with no impact on services.

2) Our present drug laws don’t stop use (ask any college student about how easy they are to find). Rather, they put money in the pocket of criminals instead of tax revenue. Why are we not evaluating legalizing and taxing drugs.

3) Our present drug laws also fill the prisons which costs us hundreds of millions a year. Even if we continue to make drugs illegal – why are we locking up the low-level pushers & users?

4) I’m not sure how the K-12 funding law is written, but can we make free education K-14 and wrap funding for the community colleges and 1st 2 years at the 4 year schools into the public schools. This needs to be free regardless and this would bring it into a more secure funding system.

5) The recent supreme court ruling in the mill-level override was pretty broad. Under that ruling we should be looking at what the legislature can do to increase revenue without an election. What springs to mind is ending the tax holiday on severance taxes. And with gas prices so low, the (inaccurate) fear-mongering about it causing a price increase will get no traction.

6) Where’s the legislation to put a tax increase and a capital expendures bond on the November ballot? Yes TABOR means the legislature must ask. So ask. A captial expendures bond makes a lot of sense right now. And I think an increase in the capital gains tax is both called for (the financial markets caused this mess) and would sell.

What bothers me is you don’t see any of the above even being discussed. Yes the economy sucks. Yes TABOR creates severe constraints. But that is no reason to keep operating the same way. Our state needs leaders that will think outside of the box.