February 03, 2010 03:48 PM UTC

Colorado And Wanting Everything For Free

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• by: Pam Bennett

Colorado and Wanting Everything For Free

This morning, February 3, 2010, the Denver Post is reporting that Rep. King is going before the ethics committee for possibly double billing.

State Rep. Steve King asked the state to reimburse him for mileage, gas and a meal at a pancake house last year, even though records suggest his campaign account already was footing the bill for those expenses.

Aside from Rep. King’s issues on this matter, the amount paid to our state legislators is way too low.  Even with the small amount reimbursed for travel, many legislators are paying out of their own pocket to represent the citizens of Colorado.  Paying for office supplies and aides out of their own checking account is common place.

To represent the people of Colorado requires more than dedication, it requires a good sized bank account. Combine low pay, a continuous stream of restrictions and you get a state with few people able to afford to run for office and represent us.

Rep. King should be able to explain what happened in this instance.  However, we as a state should pay better for our representatives to represent us.

It is time we get rid of that phony Reagan era chant “government is the problem”.  Government is not the problem, we have government to keep us a civilized society.  We have problems, large and small, that require a representative government to handle.

But, there are dedicated groups, far right and far left, who want to not only restrict government service but to destroy our representative form of government.

They are vocal and have great sound bites. But they are not the representatives of Colorado.  We as citizens must stop their activities and protect our freedom from those willing to take it away or keep us from the opportunity to vote for who we want.

 Right now with terribly low pay and chocking restrictions Colorado has instituted it stops many people from serving us.  We need to start the change process now to increase pay of those who serve us so when the state economy is healthy we can pay those in the General Assembly and state level offices a wage and support system comparable a great state.

crossposted Pam Bennett For Aurora