Cutting income taxes will not deprive our state of revenue in the near term. Do Gov't programs really get a meaningful evaluation? And the CO Energy Code Board is finally ready for your comment.
Pushback on the idea that by cutting taxes you're going to choke the state of money it needs to operate its most basic functions.
The below is a first for me: a video by the Independence Institute on policy and not an interview. I liked it and hope they make more because I think that video is a much better medium for communicating things that tend to be both boring and complicated. I hope to see more in the future.
A common refrain re. TABOR and/or lowering taxes is that this deprives our state of funds necessary to do what it needs to do--a version of the "won't someone think of the children"?
The reality is, as you might imagine, more complex than that.
First, why is it that government cannot do as all families do? Why can't our government re-prioritize and shift money around to meet the challenges it faces? Regular families do it all the time.
Second, and here's where the video comes in, our government is raking in more money than it should have. We are awash in cash and this surplus revenue goes well into the future.
So if we are not at a critical point in terms of revenue for the immediate future why the heartburn?
I think the heartburn stems from the difficulty revenue limits place on how much government can do (and thus how big it is). This wouldn't be so big an issue if the government was able to generate money to run. It isn't, however.
Our government gets money by taking it from you. You have less so the government can be bigger.
If our governor were using the idea of lowering and eventually eliminating the income tax as more than just a soundbite, he would take what is in the video below to heart.
We, Colorado, can lower our tax rates and get more of our money back in the near term without making our state grind to a halt. We SHOULD get our money back because, I don't know about you but, I know better than any politician what to do with my money.
Are government spending programs getting evaluated? If so, on what criteria? And, lastly, does that include opportunity cost?
I enjoyed reading the op ed below and recommend it to you. It's linked first below.
I enjoyed it not for its content, but for the questions it spurred. I listed them in the top line.
One thing that has always frustrated me as an educator was how there is never any time or effort spent on refinement. Every year at inservice/orientation it seemed like there was some new program, some new focus.
I always asked myself what happened to last year's? Are we still doing that? Are we going to try and fix or improve it?
How many times does this happen with our government too? I personally have seen plenty of programs proposed, funded, implemented and then forgotten. For those that do get an evaluation ...
--how thorough is it? For example, are they looking for "false successes" as the op ed has it about electric scooters?
--who's doing the looking and who are they talking to?
--is anyone considering opportunity costs (see the attached screenshot from the op ed if you want an example of what I mean).
--is anyone ACTIVELY looking for conflicts between agencies? Is anyone looking for people that have been harmed (even inadvertently) by the policy?
We should be doing all these things and we should do them BEFORE any new laws are passed. If you are wondering whether I'll hold my breath waiting, however, don't. I won't.
It is far easier to just add more layers to the onion and make government bigger than to go back and thoughtfully review.
https://denvergazette.com/opinion/columns/guest-column-did-rtd-ebike-perks-really-cut-emissions/article_abbfc198-a7e1-57f9-abb1-48c34e316ea3.html
The Colorado Energy Code Board has released draft the first set of their rules and also (finally) allow public comment.
I posted in the past about the CO Energy Code Board. They are the (unelected) group who is deciding on changes to Colorado's building codes for new construction. They are doing this work in stages and the first draft of the Solar Ready and Electric Ready codes are out and (finally) put to public comment.
You can read through the draft codes below for yourself (they're linked first below), but I'll hit some of the high spots.
--The code requires electrical rough-ins next to planned combustion appliances (to grease the skids for future electrification).
--The code requires rough-ins at both commercial and residential for EV chargers
--The code gives rules on roof space, orientation, and etc. for future solar panel hookups
Believe me when I tell you that what you see below is the thin end of the wedge. To illustrate, take a look at the screenshot attached (taken from the second link below).
I encourage you to make your voice heard on this issue. I am signed up to testify on Tuesday 3/28 and included links to sign up to testify remotely and/or to submit written comment. They're third and fourth below.
If you watched the victims of the Marshall Fire discuss higher costs they faced to to rebuild due to the energy codes adopted by their municipal governments and thought "God save us if we had these codes", you are looking at the beginnings of implementing that very code where you live.
The time to speak up is now instead of finding out the hard way.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GzfCFL8jvitcE9kMDk0od1Banhsl31FE/view?usp=sharing
https://energyoffice.colorado.gov/climate-energy/energy-policy/building-energy-codes/energy-code-board
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAhBToITpp5RcA2S-0KI4xFL2Fpl360EUOmPGzsJAzJ-ji1w/viewform
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf0BIg3A4U9a7dNTGy1DqGjXQY1TKIoUNd-uoiZCz1Cxbw3kQ/viewform