PUBLISHED in the Boulder Daily Camera, 10/28/05
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/opinion/0,1713,BDC_2401,00.html

re: "State details bleak future if Ref. C fails" (Boulder Daily Camera, 10/21/05)
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/election/article/0,1713,BDC_16316_4175915,00.html

To the Editors:

Governor Owens and his economist-cum-political-hack Henry Sobanet must think us very stupid. Owens has said for years that TABOR is the cause of Colorado's success, and not the cause of its budget challenge.
In fact, the government has not returned a TABOR refund to taxpayers since 2000.

Now, bringing out the "sky is falling" rhetoric, they expect us to believe that there will be budget cuts aimed at grandma, kids, parks, and all good and lovable things in Colorado.

The real problem is the unwillingness of the legislature, particularly the Democrats, to take on their masters at the Colorado Education Association by modifying Amendment 23, the true source of our budget difficulties.

Even Bill Owens who just last year said we would not make any modification to TABOR (and that's what C is, like it or not) without also changing Amendment 23 which puts nearly half of our General Fund spending on auto-pilot. Yet when Owens is playing waterboy for the big government crowd, he no longer even mentions the possibility of dealing with our biggest fiscal issue.

Rather than digging deeper into our wallets reward politicians for refusing to do their jobs properly, we should vote down Referendum C and make them get our fiscal house in order just as all the rest of us must do in our lives.