Citizens in Charge

Paul Jacob, President of Citizens in Charge, an organization working to preserve and expand initiative and referendum rights, addressed Colorado transparency in his Common Sense column today. I have copied it, with permission, below.

Opaque Transparency

At COST we don’t pursue a personal agenda.  We promote financial transparency because we believe taxpayers (that does include us ”” so maybe it is personal) have a right to know how their money is spent.  We aren’t fishing for praise or accolades.  Our rewards will come when every level of government in Colorado embraces full financial transparency.  That doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate compliments when we get them.

Citizens in Charge Foundation is pleased to announce that Dick Heller, plaintiff in the recent Supreme Court case, District of Columbia v. Heller, will be attending Government Reform at the Hands of the People, a citizens’ forum sponsored by Citizens in Charge Foundation.

Mr. Heller will be taking part in the panel discussion, “Enacting Real Change: Citizen-Led Reform Efforts”

DENVER ”¢ If Coloradans were hoping for a quiet campaign season after last fall’s record number of ballot measures, they may be in for a disappointment. A potential ballot measure is in the works that could be labeled “Son of Referendum C.”

House Majority Leader Paul Weissman, D-Louisville, is promising to introduce a referendum in late February that could extend Referendum C indefinitely. Referendum C, passed by voters in 2005, allowed the state to keep more than $5 billion in taxes that otherwise would have been refunded to residents.

A judge has fined Colorado Springs School District 11 $1,000 for violating a campaign finance law that bans using public money to urge voters to approve a ballot measure.

Following the defeat of two measures on the statewide ballot, a joint effort by Colorado’s three largest education lobbying groups to alter the state’s tax system has been left in a lurch.

Did the hot-button issues of affirmative action and racial preferences come up in this election? It depends where you look.

Voters in Nebraska and Colorado weighed in on ballot initiatives to ban racial preferences. Those in Nebraska voted “yes” on the ban, following the lead of California, Washington and Michigan, which had approved similar initiatives. Those in Colorado voted “no,” making it the first state in the country to reject such a measure. Advertisement

Colorado labor and business leaders announced a joint effort aimed at defeating three contentious anti-union measures on November’s ballot, an unprecedented agreement that marked the culmination of weeks of intense negotiations among unlikely allies.

In return for the business community’s pledge to campaign against a “right-to-work” measure and two other amendments targeting unions, the organized labor community agreed to withdraw four ballot initiatives that businesses had feared would harm the state’s economy.

Dozens of state organizations and elected officials have endorsed Referendum O, a measure that proposes to transform Colorado’s ballot initiative process.

Under current state law, there is no difference in the process between putting a statutory measure or a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Ref O seeks to change this.

An initiative that would have preserved affirmative action programs in Colorado fell short of the required number of signatures to make November’s crowded ballot, the secretary of state’s office said Wednesday.

Initiative 82 was nearly 8,000 signatures short following a line-by- line verification of the petitions, according to Secretary of State Mike Coffman.

There are 18 statewide issues on the Nov. 4 ballot, in addition to local ballot questions and races, state legislative contests, and U.S. House, Senate and presidential races.

While the decline of Republican dominance in Colorado has been the topic of endless media speculation, the GOP has one bright spot heading toward November: The initiative process.

A report carried in this week’s LA Times falsely suggested otherwise. Titled “GOP suffering from a lack of (ballot) initiative,” reporters Dan Morain and Nicholas Riccardi eagerly proclaimed that “The strategy of pushing propositions likely to draw conservatives to the polls has faltered as Republicans face mishaps in drafting measures and a more aggressive opposition.”

“Enough is enough.”

That’s the message Gov. Bill Ritter brought to Grand Junction on Thursday in his pitch for eliminating a lucrative tax credit Colorado’s oil and gas companies receive.

Ritter told The Daily Sentinel’s editorial board that abolishing Colorado’s “ad valorem” tax credit is a matter of “fairness.”

California’s crown as the king of the initiative is about to be snatched by Colorado. The Colorado secretary of State’s office is besieged by truckload after truckload of baled petitions being submitted by various groups seeking a spot on November’s ballot. It’s a crowded house these days.

The man flagging down passersby outside the Colorado Convention Center wanted change — not quarters, but a controversial change to the state constitution that would undo part of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

The petition-wielding House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, the state’s third-most powerful politician, manned the walkway Saturday trying to find a pitch to stop DNC volunteers streaming by and convince them to support his ballot initiative.