Use It Or Lose It Colorado's Oldest and Best Recycling Program
The subject of water rights in Colorado often generates confusion, anger and hysteria, even among those experienced in dealing with it. According to one old timer, “Whiskey’s for drinkin’. Water’s for fightin’.”
Colorado is notorious for the number of water lawyers it has, and it’s easy to criticize a system of law that generates so much conflict. However, much criticism of this system is based on a poor understanding of how and why it works. Some people believe Colorado should more closely follow the model of other western states where water allocation is more tightly controlled by government, and less by market forces. I argue in this paper that its free market origins and traditions are the strength of Colorado water law, based on protecting private property rights against all comers, public and private. This can work as well for streamflow protection as it has for power plants.
Learning to Live Within Colorado’s Tax and Spending Limits
The Colorado Commission on Taxation has just completed a survey of Colorado citizen attitudes toward the tax system. This is an important survey because it reflects the views
of ordinary citizens rather than that of politicians or special interest groups. It reveals some hostility to taxes and a low trust in the efficiency of government. This skepticism
toward taxes and government efficiency is directly related to the size of government; citizens have more confidence in local government, less confidence in state government,
and least confidence in our federal government.
PUC Regulations Could Dim Colorado’s Lights
Three main regulations unnecessarily restrict the supply of electricity in Colorado.
First, regulations from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission force utilities to create an inflexible plan for building power plants in Colorado, using forecasts based on unreliable and changeable data.
Second, Colorado’s electrical future is subject to bureaucratic whim through the “Public Convenience” doctrine. The future of Parker, Colorado has been put at severe risk because of this law. Without immediate regulatory change, Parker may soon face rolling blackouts and a severe power strain.
Finally, the PUC requires Xcel Energy to collect a tax from all ratepayers and then gives that money to large corporations, so that the corporations have money to buy energy- efficient products that have no benefit to the common electricity consumer.
These regulations are unfairly making electricity more costly.
If You Can't Stand the Heat…Don't Blame Global Warming
Seventeen consecutive days with high temperatures above 90o that wilted Denver. Raging forest fires that threaten homes and parklands throughout the Western United States. Heatwaves in California and Colorado that have utility bills soaring and tempers flaring.
It must be global warming, mustn’t it?
Amendment 23: A Critique
The question asked in Amendment 23 is a very simple one: should the state raise taxes $11 billion? That is not, of course, how the proposed amendment to the Colorado Constitution is presented by the teachers’ unions, but that is in fact what they are asking Colorado citizens to do. Since the teachers unions have obfuscated the issue, it is important to begin by showing how the proposed amendment would create this $11 billion fund which would mostly benefit the teachers’ union.
Back To Basics For Tax Reform In Colorado
It is difficult to explain the 60 odd tax bills before the Colorado Legislature this year. Every interest group in the state seems to be clamoring for tax refunds, tax cuts, or expenditures of surplus revenue to benefit their interest group. If the legislature responds to these special interests this year, as they did last year, we will end up with more loopholes and more complexity in our tax system. We seem to have forgotten the lessons learned from the tax reforms launched by the Reagan revolution, and it is time for Colorado legislators to return to these basic principles of tax reform. I will discuss first the principles that should guide tax reform in Colorado, and then some of the proposed tax bills.
Surplus Expenditures in Colorado
This issue paper examines the disposition of surplus revenue in Colorado. The evidence reveals that special interests now determine the disposition of most of the surplus revenue. The result is less efficient and equitable budgetary decisions than would have been made in the absence of surplus revenue.
Environmental Audits: Colorado Carrots versus Federal Sticks
Environmental regulation has experienced tremendous growth in the last quarter century. Much of this growth has occurred at the federal level, resulting in a heavily centralized, command-and-control bureaucracy overseeing virtually all aspects of environmental protection, including enforcement. State and local governments are a significant part of the enforcement scheme, but under strict federal oversight. This approach to achieving compliance has several limitations, and is beginning to show signs of obsolescence. The current system is inflexible, inefficient, costly, unduly adversarial, and does not maximize environmental protection.
Resolving the Conflict Between Man and the Environment: A Model in the Philippines
The Philippine eagle population has declined from an estimated total of 500 in 1981 to just 63 today. The eagles’ natural habitat has been depleted by the economic needs of the millions of Filipinos who sell forest products or farm using slash and burn techniques.
A private group, The Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEFI), has developed a program which has improved the economic life of the local residents while preserving the habitat of the eagles. Their efforts illuminate the importance of maintaining biodiversity if natural ecosystems are to flourish.
Clearing the Air on Carbon Monoxide: Fatal Scientific Flaws in the EPA Crackdown on Denver and Other
Denver is one of 59 U.S. cities that are under scrutiny by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, facing economic sanctions in the form of withheld federal highway funds and pollution control grants. This action is being contemplated by the government because these cities have not achieved compliance with EPAs ambient air quality standard for carbon monoxide (CO), as mandated by the Clean Air Act.
