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Today's Opinions

  • Ritter’s compass showed him the way

    Shortly after I started as the founding director of Denver’s Mayor’s Office of Regulatory Reform in 1991, Elbra Wedgeworth, the office’s deputy director, told me she wanted us to have breakfast with one of her Leadership Denver classmates from the district attorney’s office. Shortly thereafter, she and I met with Bill Ritter. From that day, the three of us went on to bigger and better things. Elbra became president of the City Council and brought the Democratic National Convention to Denver.

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  • Will a third-party movement emerge?

    As I write this column, I’m looking at an online Denver Post story announcing that my friend and former colleague in the state House, Kathleen Curry, has renounced her affiliation with the Democratic Party and is now officially “independent.” It comes as a surprise only insofar as sitting elected officials rarely leave their parties. That said, Curry, who hails from Gunnison, has always had an independent streak.

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  • Colorado's budget: Here come the cuts

    The Denver Post recently reported that “Colorado’s budget shortfall has grown another $40 million, reaching a projected $600.6 million for the fiscal year that ends in June.” This is due in large part to declining tax revenues as a result of bad economic conditions.

    To make matters worse, in the upcoming fiscal year — which starts in August — the budget shortfall is expected to be $1.5 billion. 

    To put those numbers into perspective, the state's operating budget for fiscal 2009-10 is just about $19 billion.

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  • Leverage always a player in politics

    It’s disappointing on every level that health care reform, like the stimulus plan before it, will be enacted without bipartisan cooperation. While Democrats have charged Republicans with being obstructionists and Republicans have called Democrats arrogant, the simple fact is that President Obama’s major initiatives will be enacted without Republican support.

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  • 5 New Year’s resolutions for a safer 2010

    As we all prepare our New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, spend less and reduce our stress level (again), remember to add these five simple resolutions. If you commit to these five things, you’ll be contributing to a safer 2010 for yourself, your loved ones and your community.

    No. 1: Torture your kids by talking to them seriously about their safety

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  • Tough assignment for school board

    You have to wonder if the two new members of the Jefferson County Board of Education go to bed each night thinking, “Be careful what you wish for …”

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  • Scandal-obsessed media sell us short

    Another season, another scandal. This time, a minor car accident in Florida gave rise to a story that culminated in Tiger Woods issuing a public statement confessing to “transgressions.”

    In what appears to be a semi-annual ritual, the press is having a field day with the foibles of another celebrity. Talk shows talk. Experts offer opinions. Eyebrows are raised. Heads move gravely from side to side.

    Are we the better for it?

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  • Find another solution to schools’ budget crisis

    In an effort to understand the Jefferson County Public Schools budget crisis, I believe I may have stumbled onto a solution. Most of the district-promoted suggestions for reducing the budget include relatively minor concessions by the district administration, partial to wholesale elimination of assistant principals and librarians, partial elimination of counselors, support staff, school secretaries, paraprofessionals, clinic aides, and of course, teachers.

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Copyright © 2013

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