Taxpayers blamed for state cash crunch

by Amy Oliver | 6:09 pm, June 17, 2010

The state cannot pay its bills and taxpayers get blamed. And no one asks where did the more than $18 billion in taxpayer dollars go.
The Denver Post reports:
Temporarily short on money, Colorado has declared a fiscal emergency and delayed payments to doctors and clinics taking care of the state’s neediest patients.
The usual suspects are providing [...]

Transparency legislation scorecard

by Amy Oliver | 6:30 pm, May 26, 2010

The 2010 Colorado General Assembly passed judgment on 23 pieces of legislation, including one joint resolution, that claim some type of transparency benefit.  Seventeen passed.
Some were great such as Rep. Amy Stephens’ bill requiring transparency for gifts, grants and donations that pay for special interest government and Rep BJ Nikkel’s bill requiring more detailed information [...]

DougCo school board says no to bullies

by Amy Oliver | 3:24 pm, May 19, 2010

Taxpayers should write a big thank you note to the members of the Douglas County School Board. They had the nerve to say “NO” to the school bullies that defend the education establishment.
The Douglas County School Board won’t use taxpayer dollars to sue taxpayers for more — you guessed it — taxpayer dollars, according to [...]

‘Lobatomy’ v State of Colorado

by Amy Oliver | 5:48 am, May 13, 2010

I can’t take credit for the title.  It comes from Poudre School Board member Patrick Albright who, along with fellow Director Barbara Schwerin, had the courage to stand up against the prevailing majority that voted to use taxpayer money to fund Lobato v. Colorado, a class action lawsuit to sue taxpayers for more K-12 funding.
In an [...]

Newspaper spins D6 CSAP scores

by Amy Oliver | 9:02 pm, May 6, 2010

This week Coloradans got their first glimpse at 2010 student achievement scores with the release of third graders’ CSAP reading test results.  They weren’t great.  The Denver Post headline read “30 percent of Colorado 3rd-graders not reading at their level, CSAP finds.”
The perspective from Greeley’s newspaper was a bit different.  The public school cheerleaders, a.k.a. [...]

Liberty on Film Presents: The Cartel

by Amanda Teresi | 12:29 pm, April 28, 2010

The Independence Institute and Liberty on the Rocks invite you to join us for an unforgettable movie event featuring The Cartel on Tuesday, May 4, at 7 PM, at Denver’s Chez Artiste Theatre.
Watch the trailer here: http://bit.ly/p6lWI
A new, award-winning documentary, The Cartel focuses on New Jersey to offer a fresh inside look at the K-12 public [...]

School bullies use your money to sue YOU!

by Amy Oliver | 10:00 pm, April 25, 2010

Cash-strapped Colorado school districts have ponied up nearly $245,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund a class action lawsuit to sue taxpayers for more money for K-12 education according to a recent Face the State article.
The Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB) and the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE) are championing the suit, Lobato v. [...]

Dept of Ed spends over $700k on “customer workshops”

by Amy Oliver | 6:06 pm, April 9, 2010

COST was having some fun searching Colorado’s transparency Web site (TOPs).  We discovered the Department of Education has spent $747,315.17 of taxpayer money with over 200 different vendors in fiscal year 2010 for “customer workshops.” A significant portion went to various hotels and restaurants including Vail Resorts, Beaver Run Resorts (again), Benchmark Conference Resort, the [...]

Transparency propaganda

by Amy Oliver | 9:44 pm, March 8, 2010

Transparency: quality or state of being clear, transparent; also frank, candid, free from deceit.
COST believes that most Coloradans have come to understand transparency in government as detailed expenditure and revenue information.
With those definitions in mind, it is laughable that the Colorado State Treasurer’s Office called its latest interactive endeavor “Tax Tracks” a transparency Web site.  The [...]

Post puts K-12 spending under microscope

by Amy Oliver | 6:49 am, March 1, 2010

Facing substantial budget cuts, Colorado’s K-12 education establishment may have to rethink how it spends money courtesy of the transparency movement we have championed.  Using transparency Web sites from Jeffco and Douglas County Schools as well as information from Denver Public Schools, the Denver Post found “found millions of dollars being spent with limited oversight [...]

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