While we were away ...
1) Ward Churchill won his lawsuit against the University of Colorado. And wants his old job back. Or a million bucks.
2) The Colorado legislature prepared a $1.9-million wish list of tax hikes it may soon pass -- without getting voter approval as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights supposedly requires. Didn't take long for the political establishment to exploit the state Supreme Court ruling I wrote about here.
When I was working in Colorado, I can't tell you how many times we'd have an editorial board with Democratic politicians (Gov. Bill Ritter, former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, you name it) who would swear on a stack of Bibles their fidelity to the linchpin of TABOR: voter approval of tax increases. They'd say TABOR's revenue limitations ought to be tweaked, but by golly, any attempt to raise taxes deserves, no, demands a vote of the people, and they could not countenance any attempt to water down or bypass that explicit limitation on representative government.
I could dig out my old notebooks with those interviews and cite you date and time, chapter and verse.
Now that the court has ruled that the government can raise taxes without voter approval, however, those previous pledges have gone down the memory hole. And unless Colorado voters hold their elected officials accountable -- or at least insist that the people in office honor the language and the intent of TABOR -- Colorado will soon resemble Oregon, except without the lovely coastline.
3) Carolina won a title.
Hat tip: Jeff T. at Meck Deck.
2) The Colorado legislature prepared a $1.9-million wish list of tax hikes it may soon pass -- without getting voter approval as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights supposedly requires. Didn't take long for the political establishment to exploit the state Supreme Court ruling I wrote about here.
When I was working in Colorado, I can't tell you how many times we'd have an editorial board with Democratic politicians (Gov. Bill Ritter, former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, you name it) who would swear on a stack of Bibles their fidelity to the linchpin of TABOR: voter approval of tax increases. They'd say TABOR's revenue limitations ought to be tweaked, but by golly, any attempt to raise taxes deserves, no, demands a vote of the people, and they could not countenance any attempt to water down or bypass that explicit limitation on representative government.
I could dig out my old notebooks with those interviews and cite you date and time, chapter and verse.
Now that the court has ruled that the government can raise taxes without voter approval, however, those previous pledges have gone down the memory hole. And unless Colorado voters hold their elected officials accountable -- or at least insist that the people in office honor the language and the intent of TABOR -- Colorado will soon resemble Oregon, except without the lovely coastline.
3) Carolina won a title.
Hat tip: Jeff T. at Meck Deck.
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