Do you know best or does government know best? An email & link for the Title Board hearing removing your TABOR refunds. Polis steps in on legislation again, this time having Sen Robert carry his water
Do you know best or does your government know best?
There are a couple bills on my watchlist and coincidentally they are both up for the same committee on the same day. See the screenshots attached and the link below for more details--I've posted about both in the past.
My schedule won't allow me to testify in person, so I did as I've done in the past: I wrote an open letter to sponsors and committee and sent it a couple days ago.
I urge you to, if you're passionate about either or both topics, to follow along. Testify in person. Send an email. If anything I wrote below is of use, please use it.
Speak up. Keep the question "is this the proper role of government?" ever in front of the faces of those who make policy.
Email follows.
An open letter to the sponsors of HB23-1115 Repeal Prohibition Local Residential Rent Control and HB23-1165 County Authority To Prohibit Firearms Discharge and the Senate Local Government and Housing Committee
Good morning to all,
My name is Cory Gaines. I had hoped to be able to testify in person against both these bills, but unfortunately my teaching schedule doesn't allow it.
If any recipient of this email would like to read any part of this letter into the committee record, please feel free.
I am glad to see both these bills up for a committee hearing at the same time because it's not only efficient for me in writing once to you all, but also because these bills, while superficially different, share something in common.
The thing that is common to both is how they both relate to the question: is this the proper role of government?
Is it the proper role of government, local or otherwise, to intrude so far into an agreement made with private parties?
Is it the proper role of government, again, local or otherwise, to intrude so far into someone safely operating a firearm on their own property?
I find it curious that our state legislators see fit, this Assembly session in particular, to step in and tell everyone what to do with their private property while at the same time loudly proclaiming how they support people being able to make their own decisions in other areas. I find it curious that they use words like a "Colorado For All" while they are busy picking winners and losers, not stepping aside letting each do as he or she sees fit and enter into voluntary agreements with each other.
Regardless of the thinking behind measures like these, there are ways to accomplish the goal I presume you have without stepping all over one group of people to elevate another.
I urge the committee to vote no.
Cory
https://leg.colorado.gov/content/local-government-housing-2
Got an update on the Title Board hearing for the initiatives to permanently remove your TABOR refunds.
I posted earlier about Initiatives #39 and #40 which are up for a Title Board hearing this Wednesday 4/19.
I got an email yesterday with meeting signup information and an address to send written comment to. They are below in that order.
I urge you to join me in sending an email or signing up to testify.
As before, please make it your own--your voice, your thoughts, and your way of expressing yourself--but I would like to put in a word for your including the following because I think it will lead to the greatest chance we have of being heard by the Title Board (and thus making these initiatives more truthful and harder to put over on people).
**one other quick note: if you've held off on emailing groups in the past, let me reiterate that small boards like the TItle Board hear from almost no one and thus your email has a greater impact here than in other contexts.
The important points to consider adding are the following:
1. It is important that the initiative language and/or title include mention that the excess revenue it mentions retaining would have otherwise gone to taxpayers. There is precedent for including this language. In 2022 a different initiative that would have held onto your TABOR refund was forced to include phrasing like this by the Title Board. See screenshot 1.
2. It is important that this initiative follow the guidelines in TABOR that requires a preamble in all caps that indicates this measure will (effectively) raise taxes.
Email Address to Send Written Comment: initiatives@coloradosos.gov
Link to register so you can offer comment virtually: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3580352238549119833
Polis stepping in on another bill, this time with Sen Roberts is carrying his water.
I've posted in the past about a bill to not allow wolf reintroduction until the Federal Government completes a review (and possibly grants wolves a 10(j) status making them experimental).
That bill was squeaking by but it was still moving at my last check.
It was moving, that is, until Polis intervened. He has, through a Democrat Senator intermediary, Sen Roberts, the provisions Polis found onerous and would have supposedly vetoed were amended out.
To wit, quoting the article below:
"Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, told the appropriations committee the amendments proposed would remove the sections of the bill that have generated the most controversy and opposition from the governor, although he didn't specifically mention the governor's stance. That's the part of the bill that said the state had to obtain the 10(j) rule before reintroduction, the language around legal challenges [the bill would have required that all legal challenges to 10(j) be completed before wolves can be reintroduced] and a requirement that reintroduction would not happen without an environmental impact statement from the federal government."
Sen Roberts can do as he likes, but if it were my bill (and Roberts is a sponsor) I'd call Polis' bluff and make him own his decision, in public.
Of course, when you have one party rule in this state, when you have politicians more interested in party than policy, and when they all have a known habit of coordinating behind the scenes, you get this sort of maneuvering.
Related:
And while environmentalists and wolf advocates say that we can't wait til the Feds review wolf reintroduction (and Polis wants to punt to them), our lawmakers are saying that no oil and gas can proceed without Federal review.
See the bill link and/or the screencap from the bill summary. If you work in oil or gas or know someone who does, this bill will further clamp down on the industry. It's up for committee on Thursday 4/20.