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Water
Water is the single biggest issue facing Colorado. We need to
secure and conserve, as best we can, to be sure that our water
needs are met for the future. The needs of the city should not
usurp the needs of the ranchers and farmers, however ranchers and
farmers should not prevent the city from providing water to its
inhabitants. The key to the water issue is finding a common
ground that we all can live and thrive with.
Energy
We should strive to become as energy independent as we possibly
can. We have an unlimited supply of wind, and solar energy. We
need to invest heavily in the new technology, and extend the time
frame on the energy credit's available to those families who chose
to install these systems. Bio diesel is fast becoming the fuel of
the future, and we need to encourage more plants to be built, with
tax incentives, energy credits, and grant monies. Bio diesel is a great
in between step, but we need to ensure we don’t limit ourselves to
bio diesel at the expense of the local rancher and consumers.
TABOR (Taxpayer Amendment Bill of Rights)
TABOR, a state constitutional amendment adopted in 1992, limits
the growth of state and local revenues to a highly restrictive
formula: inflation plus the annual change in population. This
formula is insufficient to fund the ongoing cost of government.
By creating a permanent revenue shortage, TABOR pits state
programs and services against each other for survival each year
and virtually rules out any new initiatives to address unmet or
emerging needs.
TABOR needs overhauled. The philosophy behind TABOR was good, but
the amendment has created a hardship for local governments to
efficiently operate because it has limited their revenues. The
overwhelming success of 2005 Referendum C’s passage shows the need
to reform TABOR.
We need to ensure that when TABOR goes back into effect it is
sufficient to provide for the state even during down times. The
allowance of a rainy day fund and a change to the way payments to
the people are paid out ought to be re-looked.
Colorado
Constitution
Colorado is one of the top three states whose
constitution is most easily changed. The ability to amend the
state constitution is a right of the people since Colorado's
became a state. But now it's being used so much, it threatens to
undermine representative government. A 2005 study by Colorado's
Legislative Council, the nonpartisan research staff for the
General Assembly, shows that Coloradans have increasingly, and
extensively, used the ballot initiative process in the past few
decades. The study,
Initiatives and
Referenda — An Update on Their Use, shows that since
1970, voters have tried to change the constitution 89 times,
including 56 attempts since 1990. That's only counting the
measures that made it through the qualifying process, not all the
ideas presented. Colorado needs to make it more difficult to make
changes to its constitution.
Utilities
New Mexico limits the amount of increases which can be passed on
to the consumer by utility companies, and the state of Hawaii
limits the prices of gasoline. Colorado could do more to help
residents with those kinds of expenses. With the price of fuel
rising, upping the tax on gasoline just doesn’t make sense.
Consumers can’t be "nickeled and dimed" at the pump and still have
enough to purchase their daily needs.
Immigration
I feel that we should enforce the laws that are already on the
books; however, it is imperative that we address the millions that
are currently here undocumented. There has to be a meeting
somewhere in the middle. The business owners that employ illegal
aliens knowingly need to be fined and punished.
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