Hot chocolate and a reason you should be speaking up, and then some counterpoint on that. Single payer healthcare study is in committee 2/7.
Hot chocolate and a reason you should be speaking up.
There are a lot of details about changes/proposed changes to the Universal Pre-K program below, but there's only one I want to mention to you now: hot chocolate.
Let me pull the relevant part out as a quote:
"There was also a last-minute save for hot chocolate on special occasions. In the interest of preventing childhood obesity and cavities, there is a ban on hot chocolate and chocolate milk in preschools. Adams County child care provider Charlotte Phelps says on snow days, hot chocolate can be a nice treat for the children who brave coming to school. 'I understand that Colorado is going for "Healthy America" and healthy children, but I think that is a little excessive to take that out completely,' Phelps said. Roy was swayed. She agreed to keep the general prohibition but tweak the administrative guidance. 'You will not be penalized for giving hot chocolate on a special occasion like a snowy day,' she said."
If you've read this page long enough, you might be suspicious that the beverage isn't the point here. You're right. It's not.
The point is that if you're not speaking up you need to. It doesn't matter whether or not you think your concern trivial. It doesn't matter whether or not you think you'll be listened to.
If you don't speak up you FOR CERTAIN will not get what you want and you will not be listened to. Plain and simple.
Being aware of a problem. Taking the time to call in and speak on it. It matters.
https://www.cpr.org/2024/01/23/colorado-child-care-providers-worry-new-proposal-will-them-out-of-business-but-applaud-rules-on-animals-and-potty-chairs/
The fact that you're not getting heard in this state speaks more to the character of the Democrats running this state than anything else.
Let's look at getting involved in this state, in particular testifying at the Assembly, from another perspective.
By way of making sure I offer multiple perspectives and counterpoint, I wanted to share the recent experience of a reader testifying at the Assembly.
This person had signed up to speak in favor of the bill I've posted about before, the one on classifying nuclear energy as a "clean" energy under state law. You know it. It was the one that failed on a party line (Democrat) vote. More context and blow by blow on the hearing in the first link below if you're interested.
This was the first time the reader had ever testified by Zoom and I asked them to tell me about the experience so I could share with you what testifying looks like from someone that isn't a cheerleader like yours truly.
First, in case you're curious what the screens would look like, take a look at screenshot 1 attached. This is the view this individual had while waiting for the hearing to start.
And wait they did! The meeting was delayed (if memory serves) about 8 hours due to an earlier committee running late. The Assembly's online handlers recommended checking the Twitter account you see in screenshot 2 for updates, which according to my reader were never posted.** They did find some stray messages in the Zoom feed for the meeting, however.
I think too that this reader was upset by both what happened in the committee and the perception they had as to what the committee was doing. To quote the email I got:
"I feel a lot of things towards the Dems in office and am not sure recommending folks testify is worth their time. There is no honest openness to facts, ideas or serving the citizens."
and later in the email:
"I persisted but many would in my opinion probably not. Possibly your experiences are better. You are more educated and a better witness. I'm just a property owner and I feel as justified as any citizen to be heard."
I completely understand the frustration and wanted to post this information so that you could get a sense of what can often happen when you do sign up to testify. I don't want you having illusions if you've not done it.
You are at the mercy of the schedule that the lawmakers have. Long waits are not unheard of. I would say this applies not just to the Assembly either. I have had long waits on hearings for boards like the AQCC too.
And yes, these committee hearings are frequently a pro forma exercise. That is, everyone knows going in what the outcome will be. I've heard more than once on a hot mic that the majority Democrats have already outlined their positions ahead of time.
I have my own reasons for continuing and for recommending testimony which I won't share with you here in order to keep to the original spirit of this post.
What I will say is this: you have to decide for yourself how to apportion your own time, what is worth doing and what is not. If that means testifying at the Assembly in committee hearings, please do. If that DOESN'T mean testifying, don't and do not feel guilty.
Contribute in some other way that will satisfy your spirit, mesh with your talents, and add to the conversation in this state in a meaningful way for everyone (and if hints on what to try would help, please ask).
And do not think that I or anyone else (regardless of age, education, where you live or any other thing) has a lock on what is right the right choice to make re. policy, what is the "proper" way to go about testifying, or anything like it. Everyone has just as much right to speak up as anyone else.
Choices like the Assembly (and various boards) are making are those of a value judgment and our system is founded on the idea that we all have equally valid thoughts on those.
I'm going to end where I began with a reminder. The fact that you're not getting heard speaks more to the character of the Democrats running this state than anything else.
**I have run into a similar situation with committee hearings listed as "upon adjournment" meaning the committee starts working once the whole House or Senate wraps for the day. No one knows exactly when that is, but there is a way to know. Check the second link below. It's the YouTube channel of the Assembly and you can always check in there to both see live Assembly action but to see when the whole-chamber sessions wrap up.
https://tsscolorado.com/senate-committee-nukes-bill-to-promote-alternative-energy-source/
https://www.youtube.com/@ColoradoChannel165
Single Payer Health Care in Colorado -- HB24 -1075 is up for its committee hearing on the 7th.
I wrote earlier about HB24 - 1075. The link to what I wrote earlier is first below. That is followed by the bill link and the link for its first committee.
It's up for its first committee hearing this Wednesday (the 7th). Wednesdays are tough so I won't be able to testify. I am going to send an email to the committee and sponsors which I will put below.
I also intend to start, when I can't testify, posting the open letters to the public testimony on the Assembly's website so that what I write can be put into the record. See the related content attached.
If you like a government that won't bankrupt you with fees, if you like the idea of keeping the government out of the market, if you like the idea of NOT creating giant entitlement programs that will bankrupt the state and you with it, I urge you to join me in speaking up.
My email is below. If it is of any help in your advocacy, please feel free to use any or all.
An open email to the sponsors of HB24-1075 Analysis of Universal Health-Care Payment System and the House Health and Human Services Committee
Hello to all,
My name is Cory Gaines. I am writing an email in lieu of testifying in person against HB24 - 1075 because my teaching schedule prevents it. I will also be submitting this email to the written record. If anyone who receives this email would like to read some or all into the record, please feel free.
I write this open email on behalf of myself and other Coloradans; that is, I am not a member of any organization and speak on no one else's behalf (save for those who are concerned about their ability to meet their bills as government takes more and more of our money).
As a taxpayer, as a citizen of this state, I have watched with some alarm at the perennial attempts to institute a government-run or financed health insurance.
This bill, while just a study, is clearly part of what would be a multi-year effort to institute such a program; it merely does so over a longer time scale to limit the amount of citizen and business complaint.
I am alarmed at these efforts because I am old and wise enough to have seen multiple times how government-run programs are inefficient, costly, and result in yet more burdens on those that pay taxes.
Our current system is not perfect, and I doubt you could find someone who would claim it's working well, but a trip to the DMV ought to convince nearly anyone that the government should be kept as far away as possible from anything we want to at least have hope of functioning well. And function cheaply.
This bill will start the process to create a government-run healthcare system in this state.
It will create a system that will grow government when our state government is already at record levels of personnel and cost.
It will create a new entitlement in Colorado's budget that will further drag the economy of this state down.
It will reach yet farther into the pockets of taxpayers, taking the money they might have spent on their own families.
And it will do all of this without any substantive increase in the well-being of the average Coloradans which foot the bill.
I urge you to vote no and concentrate your efforts on things that don't take money from taxpayers and that will actually improve the lives of Coloradans.
Thank you,
C
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/co-dems-want-single-payer-health?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb24-1075
https://leg.colorado.gov/committees/health-human-services/2024-regular-session-0
Related: adding your written comment to the public record on a bill.
I've mentioned testifying remotely and I've also shared a lot of my emails to bill sponsors and the committees where the bill goes first.
One thing I've not mentioned a lot is sending in written comment so that it becomes part of the legislative record. Let's look at that. It may or may not result in more eyes seeing it, but it will ensure your comment becomes a permanent mark on the bill. It's also not that onerous.
On the Assembly's landing page (linked below) ...
Choose "Committees" from the tabs across the top.
Then choose the "Public Testimony Options"
From the three options at the bottom of that page, choose "Submit Written Testimony"
From there the steps are exactly like those of any other method of testimony.
The only wrinkle is that you get to choose how to submit. You can choose to copy/paste your testimony into the box on their form or upload a document.
https://leg.colorado.gov/