Sen Roberts and Reps McCluskie & Lukens use your TABOR surplus to fix the economy they helped blight. Concealed Carry and Public Health with a Dr. Betz Interview.
The bill linked below is a series of tax credits offered to areas in NW Colorado affected by the Democrats' forcing the closure of the coal mines and the coal power plants in the area.
Screenshot 1 is the quick summary taken from the bill's fiscal note.
The tax credits are there to ease the economic hardship created by the Democrats doing this, to help remedy the blight that they put on the folks who had been sustaining themselves economically for decades.
Let me repeat that: the bill below is a series of economic incentives to help make what has been called a "Just Transition" for the people who the Colorado Democrats put out of work.
And it's not the first one. This is all part of a continuing effort; the previous monies having been put to this apparently weren't enough.
Backwards as this sort of thing is, that's not the whole of it. The Democrat sponsors mentioned above do not propose to fix their error by reprioritizing the budget. No, they plan to return to their usual playbook here. They plan to grow government and fund it by further eroding any chance you have at getting your money back via TABOR refunds.
Screenshot 2, also from the fiscal note, shows what I mean.
Efforts such as these show just how well the ruling Democrats have done with their complete control of all levers of state power. The bill is on my list to watch, but I happened to notice that it's up for Senate Floor work today and so I sent the open email below to every single Colorado Senator and included the two sponsors and the governor.
My open email follows.
Hello to all,
My name is Cory Gaines. I am a resident of Logan County, Colorado and a lifelong Coloradan.
I'm writing today about SB24-190 Rail & Coal Transition Community Economic Measures.
I would like to note before anything else that efforts to help provide support to Northwest Colorado are admirable. They are also only necessary because of the Democrat's arbitrary and economically-harmful environmental policies.
Had we not chosen to close down the coal plants in this state, there would be no need for the (failing) "Just Transition" you earlier put into law. There would be no need for yet more money to bolster that same "Just Transition".
Folks in that area had been sustaining themselves perfectly well for a long time. It was only meddling in the economy in the name of an insignificant reduction in worldwide (even nationwide) greenhouse gas emissions that caused this economic hardship.
Now we Coloradans find out that Senator Dylan Roberts, along with Rep's McCluskie and Lukens, want to dip into the state's general fund to bring yet more economic incentives to the area that at least two of the three of them voted to blight in the first place.
I am reminded of the quote by Harry Browne: "The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, 'See if it weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk.'"
Worst of all perhaps, is the fact that in order to fund this, Democrats will once again raise government costs and eat into TABOR refunds for all Coloradans. That is, rather than fixing their mistake by doing without in some other area, rather than perhaps reconsidering the environmental policy that put us where we are now, you will all be asked to vote in the crutch that is given to Northwest Colorado after your Democrat colleagues broke their legs.
Yet more evidence that the party in complete control of this state is doing a bang up job of governing.
C
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-190
Concealed Carry and Public Health
The intersection of public health and gun control has long been an interest of mine.
The video below is the first that I am aware of where you see concealed carry starting to become a topic of study for public health officials.
Of course, concealed carry regulation has been on the uptick here in this state and so it's not a leap to think that we'll start to see more and more of that research used to justify policy in this state.
In an effort to help us all learn more on that, I thought I would share.
I will leave it to you to watch if you'd like, and limit my comments on it to the following.
I would point you to the 31:13 mark in this video where one of the researchers outlines future study to be done with regard to "sensitive spaces" legislation like has been working its way through our legislature recently.
Expect policymakers with a bent to restricting gun rights to be walking hand in hand with researchers such as those in the video below. Expect that, whether valid or not, whether well-designed or poorly-designed, whether the conclusions are reliable and applicable to our world or not, research like this will be quoted and used to justify yet more gun regulation.
Dr. Betz is a big name in public health and guns in Colorado. The link below is to a podcast she did recently with the title "What Should Be Done to Reduce Gun Violence".
Worth a listen. This is someone deeply involved in the public health/gun control scene and also deeply involved with the Office of Gun Violence Prevention out of CDPHE.
Some highlights/random observations out of the podcast:
1. Dr. Betz is listed as not being an advocate for gun violence policy. I disagree. She may present herself that way NOW. She may be careful in what she says and doesn't say now, but this hasn't always been the case. Linked second and third below the podcast are an op ed she co-authored with specific policy recommendations, and an article by Complete listing her involvement in Edgewater, CO's gun control efforts.
2. One of the guests on the show is a gentleman characterized by the host as a "responsible" gun owner. It should be noted that there is no definition of this term. What this host, you, and/or a random person picked off the street may define as responsible may not line up. Gun owners are a varied lot. There is more than one way to be "responsible".
3. A caller at one point mentions how ordinary people have access to automatic guns that can fire at a huge rate and kill hundreds, etc. Neither Betz, the host, nor the "responsible" gun owner point out that automatic firearms are already illegal. No one can legally have them.
4. Expect lots of commercials around safe gun storage. You can hear this alluded to by Betz. There is a lot of money and public health people intend to see if they can replicate earlier efforts around things like seat belt usage here.
***Edit on 4/18: A reader sent me an email and pointed out that machine guns (automatic rifles) are not per se illegal. There is a process to get one if you want. When I say above that they are not legal, I was not being careful. It would have been more accurate to say that this caller's impression was that someone could walk into a gun store and walk out with a gun like Rambo. That is not what happens and there is a difference between ordinary semiautomatic rifles and automatic ones. If the reader is okay, I will post his lengthy comment so we can all learn something.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-middle-with-jeremy-ho-102531530/episode/what-should-be-done-to-reduce-161161831/
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/3518883-we-want-to-prevent-suicide-in-the-military-congress-wont-let-us/
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2022/05/03/emails-show-edgewater-councilwoman-coaching-anti-gun-activists-regional-effort-revealed/