February 15, 2010 11:01 PM UTC

McInnis Tax-Break Kvetch Tour At Full Tilt

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: From the Denver Post:

McInnis spoke Monday at a Denver plant of The Pepsi Bottling Group, which says it could lose jobs if customers have to pay more for soda. The Pepsi Bottling Group has been e-mailing employees about the tax proposal and encouraging them to write to state lawmakers to oppose it…

His speech didn’t address how reduced spending might affect jobs.

McInnis has repeatedly declined to identify specific savings he would advocate in the state budget, or present his own plan for closing the budget deficit. [Pols emphasis] And while Republicans have consistently complained that new oil and gas regulations would cost the state jobs, permits issued for new wells in the state continue to outpace new drilling in Wyoming or New Mexico, while oil and gas production in Colorado grew four percent in 2009.

Re-read that last paragraph. That, folks, is what needs to be appended to every story where McInnis caterwauls about the hard choices facing the state without offering any alternatives. Once you digest that, you form a very different impression of McInnis’ little “tour.” After reading the earlier story with some concern about its objectivity, we’re relieved to see this update.

UPDATE #2: The copy we bolded above has been removed from the Post story, now lengthier and wholly attributed to the AP–and no longer making any attempt to fact-check McInnis’ claims.

The Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels writes for The Spot:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis wraps up his three-city “job killers” tour at the Pepsi Bottling plant in Denver today to protest the elimination of tax exemptions he says will hurt business.

He earlier visited Grand Junction and Pueblo to rail against the tax bills.

Pepsi is impacted by at least two bills: a tax exemption on soft drinks and on energy bills for industry.

McInnis, who is vying with Dan Maes for the Republican nomination for governor, said the bills approved by the Democratic-controlled legislature are “job killers” and the worst possible thing to do to business in the current economy.

Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and legislative leaders so they don’t like the idea of doing away with the tax exemptions either, but said their hands are tied by a nightmare budget that has seen cuts to senior citizens and K-12 education…

We assume the lack of any proposed alternative from McInnis to these cuts, since we read the whole post and everything, is because Bartels forgot to ask. It certainly couldn’t be because McInnis or Republicans have offered anything other than posturing, or at least an alternative plan for balancing the budget originating in reality. Because they haven’t–everybody knows that, right?

For reasons we’ll leave to our readers to explore, we don’t think enough people do.