Why can’t I stop?
(Re: “The devil and Lenin in Delaware,” Danish Plan, Sept. 23.) I wholeheartedly sympathize with Paul Danish in his effort to defend Christine O’Donnell against the depredations of the likes of Bill Maher.
To think that I have been a longtime fan of Maher’s show! I mean, sure, O’Donnell had an adolescent obsession with “witchcraft,” but one should not dismiss her just because she still thinks it’s real and that it’s something she thinks she has to seriously apologize for. And how could she be more dangerous than some guy who called himself a Marxist in college, being that she doesn’t believe in global warming or evolution, and thinks that America should quit having sex?
I mean, c’mon, who are we to judge? I would like to say that I quit watching Real Time, but I just can’t pull myself away and stop myself from laughing hysterically whenever Bill plays tapes of when he got her to say “politically incorrect” things. Why can’t I stop? What’s wrong with me?
A. Villarreal/Thornton
Vote yes on 3A
We have an opportunity this election to stand up for Boulder Valley Schools!
Funding for Colorado K-12 public schools is complicated and complex.
There are overlapping formulas, constitutional mandates and local restrictions in figuring out local property taxes for public schools. But one thing we do understand: Boulder Valley Schools are subjected to recent cuts in funding for K-12 education at the state level. The time is now to take back our future and vote yes on 3A to provide the local support to restore funding to the classrooms, to the teachers and to broaden early childhood education.
Why? Because it is simply the right thing to do. We owe our current students and our next-generation students all the resources we can provide to enhance the quality of
their education. Stability in funding year after year is necessary and
essential to executing on the vision of our school board for all our
public schools. Continuous cuts in funding erode the foundation to
provide innovative instructional programs and competitive salaries for
our teachers, staff and administrators. We value education! We value our
teachers! We value our staff! We value our administrators! Eroding our
foundation cuts right through our values … we have an opportunity to
stop it!
Vote yes on 3A! You can have an impact on education!
Fran Ryan, CEO of Impact on Education/Boulder
The impact of tax measures
Though
many people understand the detrimental effect that initiatives 60, 61
and 101 will have on their lives, many are angry at having to pay such
high license fees for the old heap that rarely leaves the driveway.
It
is not obvious why the $35-per-license fees were initiated, so I would
like to tell the story of the FASTER bill put through the Colorado
legislature in 2009. The federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) was
established in 1956 to build and maintain the U.S. interstate highway
system. By 2007, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) was
receiving $500 million for maintenance and safety programs from the HTF,
but then in 2008 the fund became insolvent due to changes made in 2004
in how the fund could be invested and spent.
CDOT
found itself going from week to week, getting capital infusions from
the state general fund to just keep basic services afloat. In 2009, the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s stimulus money became
available, and CDOT embraced it fully, using it to do any projects that
were shovel-ready and in the pipeline. But still CDOT needed to find an
annual funding source that could replace the $500 million HTF, and
requested the FASTER legislation from the legislature. FASTER was
projected to supply $225 million yearly. The license fee passed, and now
affords CDOT $165 million a year for its safety projects.
If
Proposition 101 takes this away, it will further deteriorate CDOT’s
ability to maintain its already dismal schedule of safety upgrades for
bridges around the state.
As
for Amendment 61, most people understand that the public bonds held by
towns and municipal districts will all need to be collapsed from their
current 25- to 30-year amortization to 10 years. But few understand that
this will include the full 30-year
interest accumulation, so that a $2 million, 25-year bond with a debt
service of $127,000 a year will then be liable for $390,000 a year. This
will bring many municipalities, fire, school and library districts,
already on tight budgets from the weak economy, to a critical juncture.
Vote thoughtfully. John Hoffmann/Carbondale
Republican traitors
I
am writing to express great concern and disappointment in certain
elected Republican state legislators. As a life-long Republican and
current precinct leader, to find that these Republicans have abandoned
the party and their constituents to support a third-party candidate is
intolerable.
The
party expects loyalty, which is required to advance the cause of
conservatism and policies best for our state and country. These
Republicans violated our trust and abandoned all loyalty for party and
are directly contributing to the election of John Hickenlooper. The
consequences of this betrayal will be the lost opportunity to establish a
more conservative state Supreme Court, the likely turning over of
redistricting to the new Hickenlooperappointed liberal progressive
Colorado Supreme Court and the inability to make any inroads on illegal
immigration through bills to be introduced in the coming legislative
session.
Also, I
want to inform you that thousands of voters in Colorado will be watching
very closely the voting records and behavior of all GOP officials. The
party cannot stand if it refuses to stand together.
John
Hickenlooper will be a disaster for the people of this state. These
party officials are enabling that disaster to take place. He can be
defeated with party unity, but it is obvious that his election and all
the negative consequences it will bring is of small matter to these
House and Senate members.
I
respectfully ask that the members be contacted and asked to reconsider
their inappropriate and damaging decision. Actions have consequences.
For the good of the party and future of Colorado, action must be taken.
Joseph J. Balas/Colorado Springs
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