Another TABOR surplus Democrats want to keep (and let's remember Polis backroom deal with Altria). We are not yet at the point where we can switch completely to renewables.
Wait, the government has a TABOR surplus and wants to keep it?
Golly, why am I not surprised.
You'll likely also not be surprised that keeping this extra money will be sold as "won't someone think of the children?!"
**Quick bit of context: there are roughly two kinds of ballot measures. An initiative is something that is citizen-initiated. A referendum is a measure that the Assembly writes, votes on, and, if it passes, sends to the voters for a yes or no. The bill below is a referendum for a measure to appear on the 2023 ballot.
The state got more money from tobacco tax than they expected, above the TABOR cap. Prop EE would plow that money into the preschool program and also the state's general fund.
If the measure doesn't pass, the tax rate on cigarettes will fall.
Now, I realize that unless you're a smoker, the temptation is to not care. After all, you've no dog in the fight. Maybe you've got no kids in preschool and you don't smoke. Besides smoking is a bad habit.
I would still urge you to write in about this to your legislator.
--When they go after other groups, understand that's just because you're further down the list. The time to set expectations and boundaries is early. Advocating against this bill, smoker or no, is how you do it.
--Speaking up on behalf of TABOR in any context is a wise idea (see "boundaries" above).
--Note that I said the money goes to schools and the general fund. The general fund means it's not all for the children. This is as much about having more money in the slush fund for pet projects as anything else.
--If the government wanted to fund education, let them do what families everywhere have to do: trim their spending an reprioritize.
I hope you join me in advocating against this bill. I was unable to attend its first committee hearing last Friday so I sent in an email to the sponsors and committee prior to that. If you would find it helpful in your own advocacy to read what I sent in, please don't hesitate to ask.**
**Sometimes as the Assembly session starts to wrap up and the semester at my school wraps, I get busy enough that posting gets out of sequence with emailing. I wanted to share about this proposition but didn't get to the writing in sequence with writing/sending the email.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb23-1290
**Related:
I don't think I can remind people of this enough. Prop EE didn't face as much industry pushback due to a shady backroom deal between Governor Jared Polis and cigarette giant Altria to undercut Altria's competition.
https://coloradosun.com/2021/01/05/proposition-ee-jared-polis-colorado-negotiations/
Ah irony ...
As you can read in the screenshot, irony is when the last thing you expected to happen ... happens.
The little article below details how an Earth Day event at an environmental group's facility had some power issues.
The center is not connected to the grid. It has solar, backup batteries, and backup generators.
All of which failed.
I find it funny due to the irony, but that's not the point here. I'm not sharing this for that. Failures happen in every system, and that includes fossil fuel systems.
The reason that I wanted to post it is because it is a prime example of the fact that, when it comes to relying on renewables and battery backups, we are not there yet.
And if we can't do it on the small scale, how do you think it will go trying to do it on a large scale?
I'll leave you with a quote from the article below.
"Going forward, Riebel said the center [Headwaters Center--the environmental facility] will use solar panels to offset its energy needs, reconnect to the power grid in the next month to provide reliable power and use generators as a backup if possible. 'We are looking at potentially replacing them (the batteries) in the future,” Riebel wrote. “But currently we need to go partly back onto the grid to supplement the solar.'”
Yep. The power grid for satiability and reliable power. From fossil fuels.
https://www.skyhinews.com/news/headwaters-center-power-outage-delays-earth-day-events/