Too bad everyone wants to avoid any potentially dangerous political skirmishes as the state Legislature rolls into the 2014 election year.
Democrats and Republicans alike in Colorado are whistling in the graveyard as the General Assembly comes to order next week, hoping for the best as Election Day approaches, and wishing the worst on their political adversaries.
Last year, Democrats, who are in charge of just about everything that matters in Colorado right now, flexed their agendas and pushed through a gay civil rights bill, a couple of ho-hum gun-control measures and some fairly controversial fracking stuff. To say they had their way in the Capitol last year is an exaggeration. To say that they shook things up some, well, I guess.
The problem under the gold dome these days is that it doesn’t take much to make the far right shake in anger. After witnessing legislation move through the Capitol restricting the size of rifle magazines and closing loopholes in gun background check laws, Democrats became the target of an expensive, calculated political-assassination plot. In less than a year, three Democratic state lawmakers were ousted by right wingers in swing districts. The end run around Colorado’s easy-going political system has added a new, sordid dimension to Colorado politics. Dems, who want to hang onto power at all costs, are willing to lay low and hope a general electorate votes like they did two years ago. Republicans, who want to assume power at all costs, are hoping to put Democrats in the political equivalent of the Boston crab, creating direct-mailer fodder for next October.
Too bad. The message from constituents is: Suck it up and get important stuff done. Here’s what’s most important this year:
• Higher education. The only thing getting higher these days is the price. The cost of a college degree has jumped 12-fold since 1980, according to a Bloomberg report from last year. To put that in perspective, the cost of food has increased two-fold in the last 30 years. This year, CU Boulder gets about $26,000 for a year of school. That pushes the cost of a bachelor degree well past $100,000. If you’re a teacher making about $24,000 a year when you get out of school, you can’t afford to pay for your own education. Colleges haven’t kept their budgets from growing faster than just about every industry in the state. And the state has withheld funding from state schools to keep from cutting too far into public education, leaving college students and their parents to pay ever-more for college.
The cost is now so high, it threatens economic development and Colorado’s besieged middle class. Any economic development expert knows the most important lure for job creation and retention is good schools and colleges. The Legislature must force Colorado colleges to cap budget growth and make bachelor degrees affordable.
• That’s not all. Colorado is on the road to hell. Really. There’s a serious lack of planning for ever-increasing traffic on ever-deteriorating roads. Sadly, long-promised widening projects between East Mississippi Avenue and Parker Road will do nothing but increase the daily bottlenecks on southbound I-225 at I-25. And the I-70 route to Colorado’s multi-billion-dollar tourism industry? Choked, with little hope for substantive improvement any time soon. Only one thing will change Colorado’s growing gridlock: money. That money can come only from taxpayers and tourists. We need a plan for some kind of gas, sales, property or income tax increase, or tolls — something to keep the state’s motorists and economy moving. This isn’t a wish-list item. We have essentially allowed Colorado’s infrastructure to deteriorate to dangerous conditions. We either pay a lot now to fix the transportation problem, or we’ll pay excruciatingly more down the road to hell. No joke,
• There’s more. Colorado, like many states, is on the verge of being forced to treat all Colorado residents equally, including gays. Despite all the hoopla over a hard-won civil unions bill last year, the state still bans gay marriages, an embarrassment that an increasing number of courts have ruled against, most recently Utah. Gay marriages are coming to Colorado. To avoid chaos, state lawmakers should refer a ballot question to voters this fall, asking them to repeal the offensive and unconstitutional ban. GOP proponents of the referendum can tout their votes at election time to an increasingly sympathetic electorate, and Democratic proponents can rest assured the measure will energize left-leaning voters and get them to the polls.
There isn’t time for lawmakers to lay low. We sent you to Denver to do the job. Now do it.