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July 27, 2005
Ken Gordon Gets It
I'm becoming convinced that State Senator Ken Gordon is one of the most under-estimated people within the Colorado Democratic Party today. When you meet him, he appears to be a generally quiet fellow, unassuming, and very disarming.
Yet, behind the scenes, Senator Gordon has been one of the tireless warriors of this party. I can personally attest to this myself. When I ran for the State Senate in 2002, I had all sort of legislators offer to help out -- and many did. Senator Thiebaut, for example, was always there for me with answers to my questions and encouragement for me.
But only one sitting legislator took the time to spend a day with me walking door to door: Ken Gordon. Senator Gordon spent a steamy Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2002 walking door to door with me in Rocky Ford. I wasn't special -- Senator Gordon helps everybody that he can.
Which brings me to the point of this entry. I don't usually post from the many legislative e-mail newsletters that I get, but Ken Gordon has really nailed the ratchet effect of TABOR and the reasons why TABOR's supporters like it, and I want to share it with you:
Most of the TABOR amendment will not be changed by Referenda C and D, but the ratchet effect will.This is the part that sets our ongoing spending on programs by our worst year. So a recession, a terrorist attack, a SARS scare, forest fires or drought, which cause us to have a very bad year, sets are spending not only for that year, but every year thereafter.
Last year when Doug Bruce, the author of the TABOR amendment and currently an El Paso County Commissioner, spoke to our committee on TABOR reform I asked him, "Say there was a SARS scare in Colorado and for one year no one came here. No one actually died but our tax revenue was only 50% of normal. Would you agree that when the scare was over, and our tax revenue came back, that we should be allowed to provide the same services that we did before the SARS scare?" (We are not allowed to now because spending is tied to the previous year's spending, and we would only be able to spend the bad year amount plus inflation and population growth.)
Bruce responded that, "No. That would be a good opportunity to reduce government."
Now Bruce is not mainstream, for instance he calls schools, government indoctrination centers; but our interchange illustrates a point.
Under the current TABOR ratchet our spending is not based on a rational consideration of our resources or our needs. It is based on these irrational forces like terrorist attacks and recessions.
One of the tools that we try to use at the legislature in deciding policy for the state is reason--reason and logic. (You may not be able to tell this from reading the newspaper stories, but it is true.)
It just seems wrong to allow a disaster to make our public policy for us, even after the actual effects of the disaster are over. And it seems opportunistic of the opponents of C and D to embrace disaster as a method of accomplishing their goal of cutting government services, without ever engaging in the debate over whether the services are necessary and desirable. This is a debate they do not want to have, because they know that people want good education, health care, roads etc.
So reason-that which separates us from the animals in the jungle-is another reason to support these modest ballot issues, C and D.
Because we're human: what better reason to support Referenda C&D?
If you haven't yet signed up for Gordon's e-mail newsletter list, now would be a good time. Go HERE to sign up.
UPDATE: From the comments section, a note that Ken is helping lead a walk across Colorado in support of C&D. Find out how you can help at: www.thecoloradowalk.org
Posted by dslater at July 27, 2005 12:45 PM
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Comments
Ken is walking through most of Colorado this fall. Check out www.thecoloradowalk.org
Dan, you're right, he's one of our brightest stars simply because he is willing to help others shine.
Posted by: KenFan at July 27, 2005 02:10 PM
Senator Ken Gordon is simply a decent guy. He seems to take the concept of neighborhood politics very seriously, and works as if the lives and livelihoods of his neighbors depend on his effort. In fact, I think he knows they do.
Posted by: Keith Igoe at August 3, 2005 10:34 PM