2012 Transparency Legislation

by Amy Oliver | 9:59 pm, January 22, 2012

Transparency is still an issue at the state capitol. Early in this 2012 legislative session, three bills could provide taxpayers with additional transparency in government.
HB12-1009 Federal Funds Transparency Act
House Sponsors: Cheri Gerou (R-HD 25)
Senate Sponsors: Kent Lambert (R-SD 9 )
This bill seeks additional information than is currently provided on how each department and agency of [...]

APCD is dangerous to your health

by Amy Oliver | 11:08 pm, January 11, 2012

The column below appeared originally in the Summit Daily on December 22, 2011.
Colorado’s all-payer database poses serious risk, little gain
By Amy Oliver Cooke and Linda Gorman
Colorado state government, and local foundations and health policy elites, have become so ideologically invested in failed health reform policies that they now see nothing wrong with forcing Colorado citizens [...]

PERA Board: Ego trumps reality

by Amy Oliver | 3:43 pm, December 2, 2011

Colorado State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, a rare voice of reason on Colorado’s Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA) Board of Trustees, told News Talk 1310 KFKA talk show host Amy Oliver in a recent interview that when the Board voted to maintain an unrealistic 8 percent rate of return one Board member provided the following reason, ”We [...]

Stryker siblings not very charitable

by Amy Oliver | 4:58 pm, November 11, 2011

Stryker Corporation announced it “will cut 5% of its global workforce by the end of next year to reduce costs in the face of new fees on device makers required by the U.S. health care law,” reports the Detroit Free Press. According to Stryker, “job cuts will reduce annual pretax operating costs by more than [...]

How "transparent" is your school district?

by Amy Oliver | 4:37 pm, November 8, 2011

Want to know the answer to that question? Then read the new report from the Independence Institute Education Policy Center titled Time to Show the Money.
Co-authors research associate Devan Crean and senior policy analyst Ben DeGrow reviewed 178 K-12 school districts, 16 BOCES, and the Charter School Institute to determine if they were compliant with [...]

Lack of transparency downs another ballot measure

by Amy Oliver | 6:32 am, November 3, 2011

Score one for cupcakes! Bake sale beats the establishment!
Nancy Rumfelt, the one woman army at Liberty Watch, who had to have a “Bake Sale for Transparency” to raise money to pay for an open records request, defeated the education establishment. On Tuesday voters in the Thompson School District in Loveland voted overwhelmingly “no” on a [...]

The kind of state Coloradans want

by Amy Oliver | 8:41 pm, November 1, 2011

Senator Rollie Heath was the chair of the ”Unimaginative Failure” Commission (a.k.a. Long Term Fiscal Stability Commission) on which I sat in 2009. Heath constantly asked “what kind of Colorado do we want?” As if a chosen few have the right to force an answer for more than five million people, but that did not stop [...]

Issue Committee status equals newspaper access

by Amy Oliver | 6:16 pm, October 30, 2011

A local property tax increase in Loveland has attracted all the usual supporters including the teachers union, administration, and other status quo educational-industrial complex advocates. They have an issue committee, volunteers, money (including contributions from the Colorado Education Association and top district administrators), and access to the local newspaper’s guest editorial page, which the opposition [...]

Loveland supports school district transparency

by Amy Oliver | 12:12 pm, October 8, 2011

Loveland taxpayers want to know how the Thompson School District is spending their money. In the first hour of her Bake Sale for Transparency, Nancy Rumfelt of Liberty Watch raised more than $700 (in addition to all the baked goods) to pay the fee that TSD demands to fulfill her open records request.
Considering the school district [...]

Bake sale for transparency

by Amy Oliver | 2:21 pm, October 4, 2011

Citizen activist and founder of Liberty Watch Nancy Rumfelt is so determined to get public information from the Thompson School District (TSD) just ahead of a vote on 3A, a $153 million mill levy override, that she is hosting a bake sale to raise money in order to pay the fee that TSD demands to fulfill [...]

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