Cary Kennedy, the Democratic candidate for Colorado State Treasurer, speaks out of both sides of her mouth regarding one of the most important pieces of Colorado's fiscal problems.

Amendment 23, which governs spending on K-12 education, requires growth in that spending even during recession and regardless of whether there is any evidence that more money is producing better results in our public schools.

That automatic growth put Colorado's economy on a collision course with lower tax receipts as we suffered through the tech collapse and a recession that hit Colorado harder than the average state.

Cary Kennedy, who was a key player in writing Amendment 23 with that truly senseless spending "auto-pilot" was of course actively involved in writing Referendum C, the biggest tax increase in the history of the state...which she needed to cover the fiscal train wreck caused by her earlier work.

Yet, when asked about her position on the "ratchet" in Amendment 23, the provision which forces up spending regardless of whether that would be a wise thing to do, Kennedy can't seem to get her answers straight:

In an interview with the Denver Post, she apparently told them that "Amendment 23 should have had more flexibility in downturns like the 2003-05 recession".

But in an editoral published the same day in the Loveland Reporter-Herald, Kennedy told them that she "is steadfast in her backing of the measure’s ratcheting effect, saying Colorado dug itself into such a deep hole in education that the state must commit to the Amendment 23 formula, regardless of other budget woes."

It's fairly easy to guess which position Kennedy really believes; she is a dyed-in-the-wool big-government tax-and-spend addict, exactly the wrong sort of person to be treasurer in a State which is trying to balance difficult financial decisions.

Someone whose claim to fame is writing both the biggest spending problem and the biggest tax increase in Colorado's history, and who doesn't even know her own view on a Constitutional provision that she wrote is certainly not fit to be the steward of our tax dollars.