Blithe deceit

by David K Williams Jr | 11:09 pm, September 30, 2011

E.J. Dionne, columnist for the Washington Post, provides us with today’s example of Newspeak. He applauds billionaire Warren Buffett’s call for higher taxes on the rich. Dionne’s introductory sentence declaresMaybe only a really, really rich guy can cr…

Blithe deceit

by David K Williams Jr | 11:09 pm, September 30, 2011

Blithe deceit

by David K Williams Jr | 11:09 pm, September 30, 2011

Blithe deceit

by David K Williams Jr | 11:09 pm, September 30, 2011

Another reason for Coloradans to vote no on Prop. 103

by Kelly Maher | 7:40 pm, September 30, 2011

It’s easier to sell a tax increase by saying that it’s “for the kids,” when the the truth is that the money is fungible in Colorado’s General Fund, with no way to guarantee that all the additional revenue generated would go to education. Just another reason to vote no on Prop. 103.

Left Targets Gessler for Protecting Voting Integrity

by Ari Armstrong | 3:10 pm, September 30, 2011

Mailing out ballots to inactive voters is an open invitation to voter fraud. There’s no telling who’s going to receive and submit the ballot.Therefore, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler sensibly told Denver and Pueblo Counties that they should …

GOVERNOR HICKENLOOPER: Taking Positions is Admirable (But I Still Won’t Do It)

by ColoradoPeakPolitics | 1:57 pm, September 30, 2011

In the lastest 5280 Magazine, there is an incredible story about the indefatigable Denver Democratic Godfather Paul Sandoval. In a follow up to Lynn Bartel's heartbreaking account of Sandoval's struggle with cancer, Patrick Doyle uses the words…

Prop. 103. Would Hurt Working Families, Kill Jobs

by Ari Armstrong | 1:06 pm, September 30, 2011

The following article by Linn and Ari Armstrong originally was published September 30 by Grand Junction Free Press.They’re ba-a-ck, and they want to raise your taxes, again. They always do. Yes, it’s “for the children.” It usually is.But Proposition 10…

Colorado Proposition 103 Tax Hike Blue Book: Not Just for Eddie to Color On

by Eddie | 11:09 am, September 30, 2011

A couple days ago my parents received in the mail a little blue booklet. Since most of the things we receive in the mailbox anymore are junk, I was getting ready to decorate it with my crayons when my mom told me to stop. It turns out the “Blue Book” is an election guide from [...]

Balance America and Exploding Medicaid Costs

by Jon Caldara | 10:18 am, September 30, 2011

Friday night means public affairs television excellence with Devil’s Advocate on Colorado Public Television 12. First, I am joined by Weld County District Attorney Ken buck to talk about his new project, Balance America. Then the Independence Institute’s Linda Gorman sits down to talk about exploding Medicaid costs in Colorado. That’s 8:30 PM tonight. Re-broadcast [...]

Will Media Remember Praising Al Awlaki the ‘Moderate?

by Mr. Bob | 8:14 am, September 30, 2011

With the news that an American air strike has killed the U.S.-born head of Al Quaeda in Yemen, Anwar Al Awlaki, the media will explain his significance in the terrorist organization, and his role in inspiring the Ft. Hood shooter and the “underwear bom…

Cancellation of Re|Education Camps

by Eileen McGuire-Mahony | 8:00 am, September 30, 2011

PPC regrets to announce that, due to low enrollment, we have cancelled both the Fundamentals and the Advanced Re|Education camps. At this point, there are no plans to reschedule either. We are genuinely sorry to the people who did sign up–thank you–and we are refunding your full fee immediately.

Seeing Stars: It’s Good to be the King

by Randall Smith | 7:38 am, September 30, 2011

I remember hearing a lot of scare mongering by Democrats towards the presidential elections that then President George W. Bush would cancel the elections so that he could remain in power. Yet I’ve heard almost nothing from Democrats when a sitting Gove…

FORMER REPRESENTATIVE VICTOR MITCHELL: Governor Hickenlooper Is "Weak and Indecisive" On Prop 103

by ColoradoPeakPolitics | 7:25 am, September 30, 2011

Former state Representative Victor Mitchell (R-Castle Rock) says Governor Hickenlooper is "weak and indecisive" on the $3 Billion tax hike on the November 1 ballot known as Prop 103. In an interview with the Peak, the former state Rep talked …

al-Awlaki killed in Yemen

by Rossputin | 6:36 am, September 30, 2011

Multiple news outlets are reporting that Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born (and American citizen) Yemeni leader for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been killed in Yemen by US drones and/or jet strikes. Al-Awlaki’s death is being confirmed by US officials after a report from Yemen said that he was “targeted and killed 8 KM (about 5 miles) from the town of Khashef in the Province of Jawf, 140KM (about 80 miles) east of the Capital Sana’a.”

Al-Awlaki is thought to have been behind the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt in Detroit in 2009 as well as the Fort Hood massacre by Major Nidal Hasan on November 5, 2009.

Al-Awlaki was a relatively effective propagandist for al Qaeda because of his fluency in English. Fortunately, it will not be easy for al Qaeda to replace him. Knowing that a drone will take you out if you take the newly vacant job will also be a deterrent to finding qualified applicants.

The world is a safer and better place with Anwar al-Awlaki, or rather pieces of him, somewhere on the path to hell.

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Green Stimulus for Billionaires: Obama Bundler Pat Stryker, Company Invested Millions in Abound Solar, Recipient of $400M DOE Loan Guarantee

by elpresidente | 6:04 am, September 30, 2011

Complete Colorado‘s Todd Shepherd first broke ground last September on the pay-to-play implications behind Abound Solar’s $400m Department of Energy loan guarantee touted by President Barack Obama in a July 2010 radio address and its connections to a Democratic Congresswoman seeking reelection and one of the state’s highest-profile Democratic donors. Shepherd took a look at [...]

Herman Cain’s wrong number

by Rossputin | 5:34 am, September 30, 2011

If there’s one thing people notice about Herman Cain during the recent presidential debates, it is that he consistently focuses on specific solutions to specific problems. He is a consummate executive. Even Mitt Romney whose managerial experience…

Schaffer Wants to Audit (End?) Online Schools

by Randall Smith | 11:03 pm, September 29, 2011

Senate President Brandon Shaffer is calling for an “emergency” audit of online schools in Colorado.

In a letter distributed Monday to committee members, who must approve requests before they are given to the auditor, Shaffer sought, “an emergency…

GEO needs a dose of sunshine!

by Amy Oliver | 9:06 pm, September 29, 2011

For years the Governor’s Energy Office has operated in the shadows. As an “off budget” agency, it has spent millions of dollars with virtually no transparency or accountability. A newly-released paper titled “Governor’s Energy Office Needs a Dose of Sunshine” from intern Kyle Huwa examines three years worth of GEO expenditures, a time period where [...]

The Tibet ride

by Rossputin | 5:22 pm, September 29, 2011

http://tibetride.blogspot.com/

My friend and business partner, Josh Hartman, is (along with nine other cyclists) in the middle of an incredible, perhaps insane, bike ride from Lhasa, Tibet to Kathmandu, Nepal. It’s a ride that will take them a “million meters” (about 625 miles), including several daily rides of more than 50 miles at altitudes higher than anything in the continental United States.

This link shows their plan:
http://tibetride.blogspot.com/2011/09/final-preparations.html

And this link has their occasional blog updates. Obviously, in the middle of the Himalayas, they don’t get to the Internet every day…
http://tibetride.blogspot.com/

Here’s a map of their route (click on map for larger version)

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Hoiles Finalist

by Ari Armstrong | 4:27 pm, September 29, 2011

RELEASEAri Armstrong Announced as Hoiles Finalist for Regional JournalismColorado free-market writer Ari Armstrong has been announced as a finalist in the 2011 Hoiles Prize for regional journalism. The award, offered by the International Policy Network…

School Voucher Forum: Independence v. ACLU

by Jon Caldara | 3:00 pm, September 29, 2011

I want to alert my readers of an event happening this Wednesday, October 5th from 8 to 9:15am. The South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce will be holding a forum on the real world impact school vouchers have on education. On one side will be our Education Policy Analyst Ben DeGrow and on the other [...]

Patient Power Now: Cool Site Design!

by Jon Caldara | 2:37 pm, September 29, 2011

Like me, you’re probably a big fan of health care policy. This means you’re probably a big fan of Linda Gorman and Brian Schwartz’s Patient Power Now health care policy blog. If not, you need to go check out Patient Power… NOW! It’s a great way to keep up with what’s going on in the [...]

Harrison School District’s Bold Pay Reform Shows Early Success, Draws Attention

by Eddie | 11:53 am, September 29, 2011

At my Education Policy Center friends’ recent series of Colorado school board candidate briefings, one of the local reforms they highlighted was Harrison School District Two’s groundbreaking pay-for-performance system, known as Effectiveness and Results (E & R). Well, who knew during the briefings that a little sensational news would give certain local bloggers a platform [...]

Seeing Stars: I’ll Have a Large Crony with Extra Cheese

by Randall Smith | 7:30 am, September 29, 2011

Does this look like a problem to anyone else?

Exempt yourself from insider trading rules
Give huge amounts of money to politically connected corporations including those with ties to party leadership
PROFIT!!

Time to turn in my two remaining ce…

CO House Republicans block state-run exchange’s grant application

by Brian T. Schwartz | 5:30 am, September 29, 2011

“Colorado House Republicans temporarily have blocked the CO Health Benefit Exchange board from applying for a $22 million grant … to set up the technology infrastructure needed to operate an online health insurance marketplace beginning in 2014″ -Den Bus. Journal Continue reading →

Colorado Prop 103 deception

by Rossputin | 5:29 am, September 29, 2011

Like many Coloradans, I received a robo-call supporting Proposition 103, in which the disembodied female supporter describes 103 as a “five-year time out from school cuts.” Nowhere does the robo-call mention the huge ($3 billion) tax hike that 103 actually represents.

A quick check of the official “Blue Book” election guide which describes statewide ballot measures says this about Proposition 103:

Proposition 103 proposes amending the Colorado statutes to:

increase the state income tax rate from 4.63 to 5.0 percent for five years, starting January 1, 2012;

increase the state sales and use tax rate from 2.9 to 3.0 percent for five years, starting January 1, 2012; and

require the state legislature to spend the money on public education by increasing funding above the amount in budget year 2011-12.

In other words, the first two of the three bullet points about the measure discuss the fact that is is a tax hike, and an enormous one at that.

An organization called “Save Colorado Jobs” has mounted a campaign against Prop 103, using the dastardly tactic of actually telling people what 103 is and what it is likely to do to the Colorado economy. (I will try to get Save Colorado Jobs’ Chairman Victor Mitchell on my radio show sometime soon.)

Prop 103 aims to increase taxes by $3 billion over five years, a nearly 9% annual increase over the state budget’s FY2011-2012 numbers. If Colorado were to pass a tax hike – which we won’t – it would be one of the only states in the nation stupid enough to raise taxes during an extremely weak economy and during these times of intense competition between states to attract job creators.

But there’s another point to be made here: Just under 40% of all state General Fund expenditures go to K-12 education. How can 40% of a state’s spending toward one thing not be enough? The answer is that it is more than enough, and that it is the system itself, and particularly the impact of teachers unions, which is the problem. This is why the Colorado Education Association supports Prop 103; the extra money would mask the damage they our doing to our state and our children through their massive bureaucracies and intense opposition to merit pay and real assessments of teach performance.

Speaking of the CEA, their web site links to a site called Vote Yes on 103, which is owned and controlled by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, a left-wing Denver-based think tank and activist organization. Earlier this year, the group withdrew its proposals for six tax increases in the state after being unable to generate any serious support.

The site has a page which calculates your estimated increase in income and sales taxes, but the math has a serious flaw: It assumes a constant percentage of one’s gross income to be taxable regardless of your income level and assumes a constant percentage of one’s gross income to be spent on items which have sales tax applied, again regardless of your income level. (You can see the actual calculations at the end of this note.)

In particular, the site assumes that 58% of one’s gross income ends up being taxable and that 23% of one’s gross income ends up being spent on items which have sales tax applied.

But these numbers vary widely. The percentage of one’s income which is taxable generally increases with one’s income because people don’t usually increase deductions (including the size of one’s mortgage) in direct proportion to increases in income. For example, someone who makes $300,000 per year does not necessarily have a 50% more expensive house than someone who makes $200,000 per year. Therefore, the higher the income assumed, the more this web site understates what the income tax increase will be. Furthermore, at low income levels, such as couple earning $18,000 per year, the form overstates what the income tax increase would be because that couple would have zero federal taxable income (the number on which state tax is based.)

The other side of the coin is that the calculation probably overstates the sales tax increase for higher incomes but understates the sales tax increase for lower incomes, as those with higher incomes are able to save more while those with lower incomes have to spend most or all of their incomes. This question is of course dependent on what items are excluded from sales taxes, as food is in Colorado. Nevertheless, the fundamental principle applies.

The income tax portion of Prop 103 is really where the money is, with the Blue Book analysis showing that over 85% of the $3 billion estimated to be raised will come from individual and business income taxes, and only about 14% from sales and use taxes.

And therefore, the Yes on 103 web site’s assumption regarding only 58% of a person’s or family’s income being taxable deserves serious scrutiny, with their math understating the tax hike for upper income earners, which is to say for the people who already pay most of the state and the nation’s taxes.

On the one hand, I’m tempted to joke that perhaps the state does need the money for education if these are our citizens’ math and logic skills. But the reality of the situation is more likely that this, like the robo-call which never mentions the tax hike that Prop 103 really is, is an intentional piece of deception by leftists for whom the end – taking more of our money – justifies the means.

————————————-

My friend Kelly Maher found the pro-103 robo-call as deceptive as I did, and explains it clearly here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4dFoaGEkA

I took Kelly’s advice and penned a note to State Senator Rollie Heath, though I can’t say I asked him to be more “fair and honest”, as Kelly asked, since I know that he is incapable of that. Instead, I wrote this:

Dear Senator Heath,

I received a robo-call from one of the groups supporting your Proposition 103. It never mentions the fact that 103 would constitute a massive increase on Coloradans.

In fact, even in the final draft of the “Blue Book” language of the Proposition, the first two of its three bullet points involve tax hikes.

I hope you realize that you are not fooling anybody, and I’m actually glad you are putting forward 103 because it serves to remind Colorado voters that Democrats have no ideas other than to raise taxes, and have no loyalty other than to public sector unions.

Furthermore, the way you are promoting the Proposition serves to remind us that you and your ilk will say absolutely anything to get your hands on more of our money.

Most sincerely,

Ross Kaminsky
Nederland, CO

—————————-

For those of you wondering about the pro-103 web site’s math, here is the code which I grabbed from their web page. Note how “b” is used as the number to be multiplied by the tax rate to calculate your new income tax burden, while “e” is the number used to calculate the new sales tax burden.

<script language="javascript">
<!-- Begin

function calc1(form) {
a = form.a.value;
b = a*.58;
c = b*.0463;
d = b*.05;
e = a*.23;
f = e*.029;
g = e*.03;
h = Math.round(d-c);
i = Math.round(g-f);
j = h+i;
form.total1.value = c;
form.total11.value = d;
form.total12.value = h;
form.total122.value = f;
form.total123.value = g;
form.total13.value = i;
form.grandtotal.value = j;
}
//  End -->
</script>

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Colorado Voter Registration Part 4: Of Unaffiliateds and the Active/Inactive Divide

by elpresidente | 1:26 am, September 29, 2011

A few folks took umbrage with my posts on the number of unaffiliateds that exist in the state, noting that the number should instead focus on the divide between “active” and “inactive” voters. A week or so later, the Denver Post published this article, looking at the number of unaffiliateds–and found what appeared to be [...]

Colorado Voter Registration: U.S. Census Bureau Data for 2010 Election is Puzzling

by elpresidente | 1:24 am, September 29, 2011

A Denver Business Journal post claims that 48.4% of 2.3 million registered voters in Colorado voted in 2010 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But the DBJ report relies on apparently faulty data from the bureau. There were more than 3.2 million total registered voters in Colorado as of November 2010. Of those, there were [...]

Inefficiency and Government Monopolies

by PerlStalker | 10:07 pm, September 28, 2011

I posted a link to this story in the Denver Post in Seeing Stars a couple of days ago. Colorado is wasting millions of dollars doing tasks manually that could be done more efficiently though automation. It’s a common problem with all monopolies which i…

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