I have to admit, I’m a sucker for analogies. Especially clever ones that make me laugh. That’s why I’ve got to share this great allegorical bit with you. Unlike my graveyard shift at 850KOA, Amy Oliver’s got a prime radio spot on 1310KFKA, from 9 to 11am every weekday morning. (It’s a really great show. You should tune in). Working with KFKA has given Amy access to the KFKA Players, who adapted a humorous Face the State article into a hilarious 5 minute bit called, “King Ritter: When your goose is cooked.” Thanks to Andrew Ripemoff from Face the State for providing the inspirational story. And like they say… it’s funny because it’s true.

The Colorado Union of Taxpayers does this really great thing every year where they compile State legislators voting records and reveal who has an insatiable appetite for our money and who doesn’t. With their 2008 newsletter comes their 2008 ratings, and it’s worth taking note of how your representative scored. No surprise that Mr. TABOR himself, Doug Bruce, ranked the highest among House members, and Dave Shultheis in the Senate. The newsletter also covers key bill summaries, the CUT pledge and who has signed it, in addition to Governor Ritter’s rating, which is probably as low as you imagine it to be. The Colorado Union of Taxpayers does a lot of good work, so don’t overlook their guidance this coming November.

There seems to be two opposing modes of attaining the “new energy economy.” One, we’ll call the Ritter plan, utilizes Soviet style command and control measures while the other, we’ll call the Lundberg plan, relies on market forces. Representative Lundberg discussed his ideas versus Ritter’s on a podcast he did with Amy Oliver a few weeks back. In the podcast Rep. Lundberg briefly talks about the upcoming hearing on Colorado’s energy crisis. Well, the day is coming quickly and I just got my hands on the press release. Here are the details.

Turning up the Heat on the Energy Debate:Why are energy prices so high, and what can we do about it?

Statehouse Republicans are conducting an ad hoc hearing on the energy issue at the Capitol on Thursday, Aug. 21, to address that question.

The event is hosted by the Republican Study Committee of Colorado, and will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Old Supreme Court Chambers.

Speakers from several major think tanks, academia, the public sector and energy industries will be a part of the hearing.

The event will examine the advantages and drawbacks of different energy sources, including oil and gas, coal, nuclear, ethanol, solar, wind and oil shale. Participants also will examine Colorado’s policies toward those sources, and the reasons for the high cost of energy.

WHO: Reps. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, and Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, James Taylor, Heartland Institute, and other experts (see attached for complete list of speakers)

WHAT: Forum entitled: “Colorado’s Energy Crisis: New Energy Economy or No Energy Economy?”

WHERE: Old Supreme Court Chambers on the second floor of the Colorado State Capitol Building 200 East Colfax, Denver

WHEN: Thursday, Aug. 21, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Amy Oliver will be speaking on the think tank panel with James “Fire and Rain” Taylor of the Heartland Institute and Mark Kelly of the Heritage Institute. The forum is open to the public, so if you can sneak out of work that day, definitely go check it out.

Let me see if I’ve got this. Cary Kennendy and Andrew Romanoff worked to pass Amendment 23 back in 2000, promising the spending mandate was written to work with TABOR. Now they admit it doesn’t. The same two pushed Referendum C in 2005 saying it would cost us about $3 billion. It’s now costing us almost double that. They passed a mill levy freeze that costs us $4 billion after we warned them it was unconstitutional. Then they acted surprised when the courts agreed with us. Now they are selling an initiative, #126, that “fixes” their mess with 23 and takes away our TABOR refunds, forever. When will taxpayers learn - every time these folks buy a taxpayer a drink, he wakes up the next morning in a bathtub full of ice and missing a kidney.

A slew of states, including our neighbor Kansas, has embraced transparency in government by creating publicly searchable databases for government expenditures and contracts. Texas requires school districts to put their check registries on-line for citizens to see. Why hasn’t Colorado embraced this movement? To answer that question and more about transparency and accountability in government, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and Denver Post editorial page editor Dan Haley join me tonight on Independent Thinking. Tune in to KBDI Channel 12 at 8:30 p.m.; repeated the following Tuesday evening at 5 p.m.

© 2008, Benjamin Hummel. To see more cartoons like this go to www.politixcartoons.com.

When the mainstream media wants a different perspective on an issue, you know, other than the “let’s tax and spend, and then tax some more” stance, they come to us. This time 9News was doing a piece on school bond elections and accordingly, came to our education policy analyst Ben DeGrow to get his take on asking voters for yet more money this coming November. Proposing another $350 million bond and an additional $32 million mill levy increase - as JeffCo, the state’s largest school district is considering - can create a sticky situation, especially during an economic downturn. Furthermore, as Ben points out, it’s not exactly like Colorado school districts are hurting for money. We stand at a respectable 26th in education funding, NOT 49th. And even if that were not the case, Ben rightly states,

“Most studies show, there’s no connection between how much is spent and what the results are as far as student tests,” said DeGrow.

The most famous, and possibly most in-depth attempt to throw money at education to increase performance was the 1985-1997 Kansas City Experiment.

The results were dismal. Test scores did not rise; the black-white gap did not diminish; and there was less, not greater, integration.

Not even $2 billion over 12 years could buy performance. Shocking, I know. So what’s the solution? Well, let’s ask the expert, Ben.

DeGrow says, instead, people should be asking districts how it can spend the money it already has more efficiently instead of trying to fix all problems by throwing more money into the system.

….What a novel idea.

Let’s say it together:  NO TAXATION WITHOUT INFORMATION! 

Last week I got excited when the Denver Post made an issue out of government transparency, because we have been working diligently on the topic here at Independence.  Now, I’m unleashing my not so secret weapon: Amy Oliver, who has made transparency her mission:

Going forward, it will be my mission to get my city — Greeley; my school district — Greeley Evans District Six, which has a “Comprehensive Accountability System” that doesn’t include budget transparency; my county — Weld County; and my state — Colorado to put their check registries on-line, in a searchable database.

Even though the information regarding how our government spends our money is not behind lock and key, it’s more or less behind a door that’s stuck with a big bucket of water hanging above. Putting the information on an accessible website can help alleviate the amount of bureaucratical nonsense the average citizen must endure just to know where his or her money is going. Our friends over at the Sam Adams Alliance cleverly titled the sunshine effort, “no taxation without information.” Or as I like to call it, “no taxation without first stepping into the 21st century.” The Independence Institute will continue to carry the torch for transparency with projects like Justin Longo’s local government research and now Amy Oliver’s crusade.

We’ve been cranking out podcasts here on all sorts of different topics. We’ve got a couple with our well-traveled senior fellow Wendel Cox. One that addresses government manipulation of the housing market and the other concerning RTD’s lies and deception. I also interviewed Justin Longo about his research on the explosion in the growth in the number of governments here in Colorado. The new data is sure to surprise, and possibly scare you. Finally, Amy Oliver sat down with State Representative Kevin Lundberg to discuss Ritter’s scheme for renewable energy. I was shocked to find out that it is much different than Representative Lundberg’s plan! In addition, Rep. Lundberg will be hosting a hearing down at the State Capitol on August 21st to talk about the alternatives to Governor Ritter’s command and control style energy plan.

So if you’ve got a minute, or eight, tune into ivoices.org to soak up some knowledge on today’s most important issues.

© 2008, Benjamin Hummel. To see more cartoons like this go to www.politixcartoons.com.