I give the General Assembly's majority party and Gov. Polis credit for negotiating and passing this budget. It is a strong example of good fiscal management of the state.

If only Polis cared nearly as much about protecting air quality and doing something about climate change. But those issues are utterly unimportant to him, as indicated by his continued tolerance of Kaufman at the Air Pollution Control Division, failure to even say a meaningful word about the allegations in the whistleblowers' complaint, and threat to veto legislation that would set greenhouse gas reduction targets.

Polis may yet go down as the worst governor on environmental issues seen in this state since at least the 1960s. His failure to deal seriously not only with climate change and air quality, but also to address the absurd effort by Aurora and Colorado Springs to exploit the Western Slope some more with a new Homestake dam project or the endless sprawl and failing mass transit system on the Front Range or the continuing and greenhouse gas-spewing fracking in this state makes him an anti-environment governor.

I hope the Democratic Party puts up a stronger candidate next year. About the only thing Polis can say in his favor on environmental issues is that the GOP is far, far worse.