Pat Stryker waiting for more taxpayer money to fund Abound
Leftist billionaire heiress Pat Stryker is waiting to see if taxpayers via the Department of Energy (DOE) will throw another $10 million at Stryker’s failed thin-filmed solar panel manufacturer Abound Solar before she puts any more of her own money into the Colorado-based company reports Eric Wesoff of GreenTech Media: The firm awaits $10 million from the […]
An Analysis Of Proposition 103
Colorado’s Proposition 103 will raise state taxes $532 million in the first year and about $2.9 billion in the first five years. It proposes to raise the income tax rate on individuals and families, as well as small businesses, and simultaneously to raise the state sales tax rate. Proposition 103 is the only state issue on this fall’s ballot.
Colorado docs often refuse or limit new Medicare patients
“Of 100 [physicians] contacted, only 34 said they would readily accept a new patient. [One] hesitated after figuring out that Medicare had paid half of what other insurance plans did, over three years.” Continue reading
FTA Questioned Honolulu Rail Boondoggle
Internal emails reveal that Federal Transit Administration officials were skeptical of Honolulu’s plan to spend $5.3 billion on a 20-mile rail transit line. City voters approved this line only after an expensive and hard-fought campaign. One FTA email accused the city of Honolulu of “lousy practices of public manipulation” and argued that the FTA should […]
Is Someone Ready to Take Care of Colorado Teachers’ “Hotel California” Problem?
Quite awhile ago I highlighted the work of my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow discussing the issue of union revocation periods. What is that, you say? Well, teachers in 30 Colorado school districts (and other school employees in 11 districts) have just a short window of time to cancel their membership dues deduction.
You read […]
Chevy instructs how to gouge Colorado taxpayers
Buy a $40,000 Chevy Volt and taxpayers in Colorado and across the country will pick up nearly one third of the cost plus provide a permit to use Colorado’s HOV lanes free. Chevy blasted a “radio advisory,” which I received for my show on News Talk 1310, bragging about taxpayers footing the bill: Colorado residents […]
Dougco School Board Approves Choice Program: Looking Back One Year Later
Can you believe it was one year ago today that the Douglas County Board of Education voted to adopt the groundbreaking Pilot Choice Scholarship Program? (Can you also believe that I was 5 years old then and am still 5 years old now? I need to talk to my Education Policy Center friends about this.) […]
House Rules Committee: “Violate Your Oath No Matter How You Vote!”
It’s a stunning betrayal of all those hardworking, pro-Constitution Americans who gave U.S. House Republicans their majority. Republicans controlling the House Rules Committee have added sweeping new mandates on the states to a bill repealing part of Obamacare. The result is revised H.R. 5. Just on good government grounds, those two very different items do […]
“American Nightmare: How Government Undermines the Dream of Home Ownership”
Please join us for a presentation and book signing with Randall O’Toole is an Independence Institute Senior Fellow and Cato Institute Senior Fellow working on urban growth, public land, and transportation issues. The American dream of families owning their own homes has become a victim of class warfare, with the middle class attempting to suppress homeownership […]
Obamacare Medicaid mandates are unconstitutional
ObamaCare’s Medicaid mandates are, if anything, even more constitutionally dubious than the individual mandate. The Independence Institute has taken the unusual step of filing a brief urging the court to overturn them. Continue reading
Shooting Themselves in Their Feet
After fiscal conservatives successfully scuttled a House transportation bill that would have ended pork and allowed Congress to minimize deficit spending, the Senate has passed a bill that is full of pork and will practically mandate deficit spending. The good news, such as it is, is that the bill only reauthorizes federal spending for two […]
Denver Mayor Hancock and Andre Agassi Discussed Education Reform: A Good Sign?
A couple weeks ago I excitedly tweeted about a great blog piece in which four of Colorado’s leading Democrats — Lt. Governor Joe Garcia, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, and State Senator Michael Johnston — explained why they support school choice.
Then today Todd Shepherd of Complete Colorado forwarded me an interesting […]
