FACE THE STATE
It’s been less than a year since last November’s election featured a near-record number of statewide citizen initiatives, but determined activists have already begun anew the process to go before voters with their proposals in 2010. So far, seven initiatives are on track toward the petition finish line next July, with others already giving up and some taking a break.
Two groups are focusing on same sex marriage recognition, one sponsoring a “Civil Union” initiative while the other is simply called “Marriage” and would constitutionally define marriage as a union between two consenting, unrelated adults. The marriage initiative is sponsored by a young Lakewood couple, Stu Allen and Crystal Harris, who have no prior involvement in politics. Colorado Family Equality is sponsoring the civil union question, but has put its plans on hold pending Allen and Harris’ progress.
“Our goals are the same, to provide partner recognition for same-sex couples,” said Joseph Peterson, executive director for Colorado Family Equality. “We are in information sharing stages right now and we decided to put ours on hold until Civil Unions is done [collecting signatures].”
Colorado Right to Life and Personhood USA, the sponsors behind last year’s Amendment 48 – solidly defeated by voters – are also attempting to make a comeback on the 2010 ballot. Pending the results of a recent title hearing with Legislative Council, the groups are expected to start collecting signatures this summer for a second shot at a state constitutional limit on abortion.
Also of note are three anti-tax initiatives that would short-circuit Colorado’s current revenue system and shift the constitutional balance back in preference of limited taxation. The three are short-titled “Motor Vehicle, Income and Telecommunications Taxes and Fees,” “State and Local Debt Limitations” and “Property Taxes.”
An initiative designed to guarantee workers’ right to secret ballot union elections is also facing a battle against litigation from liberal attorney Mark Grueskin, filed on behalf of the AFL-CIO.
But getting an early start to the election cycle doesn’t mean a proposed initiative has any better chance of successfully making it to the ballot. The first initiative filed for 2010, proposing an official “Global Day Without Violence,” is sponsored by Page and Chester Penk, who also backed last year’s “sex strike” initiative. To no one’s surprise, that effort failed to collect enough signatures to make the ballot. Despite being first to file this time around, their most recent title has since expired.
Initiatives introduced and since withdrawn include a “General Fund Appropriations” question designed for this November’s ballot. It would have removed the 6 percent spending cap imposed by Arveschoug-Bird, which was repealed by law earlier this year. Also withdrawn are questions titled “Consumer Credit Checks by Potential Employers,” “Congressional Term Limits” and “Verifications of Qualifications for Office of President.”
To begin the process of gaining ballot access for next year’s election, initiative backers must first file proposed language with the state, which is reviewed by a non-partisan staff and assigned a short title. Once approved as to form – and assuming the language or title are not challenged in court – petitioners then collect signatures, with petitions due July 12, 2010. Statewide initiatives require over 76,000 valid signatures from Colorado voters to make the ballot.

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Who says hippies don’t have money?
Not Gary Briggs, owner of Morrison Liquor, the liquor store located just feet away from where Vermont-based jam band Phish launched a four-night invasion of Red Rocks last night.
“It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread,” Briggs said of the thousands of Phish fans who have stormed into the tiny town of Morrison.
With Phish comes thousands of loyal members of the sub-culture that Phish has perpetuated, a sub-culture pioneered by the Grateful Dead.
And despite the stereotypes that comes with all things considered hippy, Phish fans are for the most part well off, spending countless dollars traveling the country with the band to catch as many shows as practically feasible.
In defense of the community, “hippy” is simply a notion. These fans actually represent a diverse cross-section of the population, including doctors, lawyers, teachers — and, yes, even legitimate hippies, who pack up the Volkswagen bus and live off community meals.
Jen Mickelson, a server at Red Rocks Grill, said she’s all for the fans if they actually sit down and order food and beer at her Morrison establishment.

Unrest in 1996
She is, however, watching with cautious eyes. The last time Phish played at Red Rocks, in 1996, fans erupted in minor violence when ticketless followers were turned away from the Red Rocks Park. Irritation turned into anger and fans clashed with police. The band was subsequently unofficially banned from Red Rocks and have not returned in the past 13 years.
“It really depends on the kind of fans that they are,” said Mickelson. “I don’t know if they’re the fans that are going to spend money or just camp out here.”
Just around the corner, Kathy — who identified herself as only Kathy, “The Queen of Cliff House Lodge” — has completely embraced the Phish experience. As the business manager of Cliff House Lodge Country Inn & Hot Tub Cottages, she has organized a music festival on Sunday to accompany Phish. Local musicians will be performing for fans — there’s even a fish fry. Get it?
Tickets cost $25 and proceeds benefit the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, an organization that donates musical instruments to young musicians. For information, visit BoulderTalent.com.
“I think it’s just good for us, good for Morrison and good for America,” said Kathy of the fans and the band coming through town.
Meanwhile, Briggs has increased his staff from three to six just to accommodate the fans. He’s stocked his liquor store with all microbrews and Pabst Blue Ribbon — because that’s what Phish fans drink, he said.
In the next few days, Briggs said he will sell enough beer and liquor to get him through the slow winter, when Red Rocks is closed to concerts. He said he hasn’t experienced a business day as good as the ones he experienced 13 years ago when Phish last played.
“I’d like to have them come every year, that’s no problem with me,” said Briggs.
Mickelson, however, is not so sure.
“Let’s just say, they’re a different kind of people,” she said.

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
A Denver shelter that houses 100 homeless men every night will cease overnight sheltering beginning Aug. 10.
The announcement Wednesday by the Denver Salvation Army to close Crossroads Center to sheltering comes as part of a shift in its direction on how to offer services to the homeless. The new plan will focus the majority of its resources on support services, such as counseling and transitional housing programs, said Salvation Army city coordinator Capt. Ron McKinney in a statement.
“One of the best ways to help people escape homelessness is through effective counseling and case management,” he said. “We believe that this is the right time to direct our resources where they can do the most good for these homeless men.”
Pacing back and forth outside the shelter located at 1901 29th St., a homeless man wearing a tattered flannel shirt and ripped jeans shook his head when approached by the Denver Daily News on the shelter’s imminent closing to sheltering.
“It’s not closing,” replied the man, who declined to give his name.
When pushed by the Denver Daily that the shelter is in fact not going to offer nightly sheltering services, the man continued his denial.
“It’s not closing, I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I’m staying right here. I’ve got nothing else to say.”
James L., who also declined to give his full name, said he doesn’t know where he’ll stay at night after Aug. 10th.
“I have nowhere to go, I’ll be on the street,” he said.
The Salvation Army says the redirection is part of its overall goal of “providing a hand up, rather than a hand out.”

Opened in 1983
Crossroads opened in 1983 as an emergency survival shelter for homeless men, but developed into a nightly shelter. The Center also offers search and rescue operations during extreme winter weather, as well as transitional housing for men. Those programs will continue.
Officials with the Salvation Army look at it as “enhancing” its services to align more directly with the city’s 10-year plan to end homelessness, known as Denver’s Road Home. Crossroads will see an increase in case management and support personnel as a result.
But McKinney acknowledges that part of the closure is based on the economic downturn, which has hit non-profits very hard.
“In our ongoing mission to do the most good for people in need we are making this change,” he states. “Recognizing the limitations of funds that are available requires our agency to be as effective as possible in the use of monies.”
Ron Rico, who is homeless himself and has used the Crossroads shelter, agrees with the Salvation Army’s strategy.
“These cats keep getting money from the government, but they’re lazy,” he said, referring to homeless individuals receiving welfare and disability assistance. “They’re just stealing money from the government — they don’t go and try to get a job.”
“This crack, meth, heroin — it’s killing us,” continued Rico. “Close it. You’ll have more responsible Americans. Then they’ll want to go out to get their life together.”

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By Joshua Wolpe, DENVER DAILY NEWS
A construction industry analysis of the federal government’s economic stimulus package released Thursday shows “little influence” on companies’ ability to expand payrolls, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.
The stimulus analysis was based in part of a survey of nearly 1,000 construction firms nationwide conducted by AGC over the past three weeks.
Stephen Sandherr, CEO of the contractors association, said that five months into a federal stimulus program that has approximately $135 billion dedicated for construction projects is showing little difference in hiring and purchasing patterns between companies doing stimulus-funding work and companies that are not.
“Unsustainably high expectations can bring down good policy and great programs,” he said. “The stimulus will keep our industry alive, but it will not turn around a trillion dollar construction industry overnight.”
One of the more interesting results of the survey is the number of firms planning significant purchases of equipment and supplies in the near future.
Forty-three percent of the firms that do not expect to do stimulus work said they plan to purchase new equipment or supplies in the next two years, versus 36 percent of firms that have won stimulus work.
However, far fewer estimate they will spend $500,000 or more – 18 percent, compared to the 42 percent of firms that have already won stimulus-funded work.
The Colorado Department of Transportation, which is overseeing many American Recovery and Reinvestment projects, says that the industry needs to be patient.
“What is difficult right now is that it takes a while to get a project under construction — it’s never going to be an immediate project,” said Stacey Stegman, public relations director for CDOT. “We’re just now starting to see impacts from the bill — we have seen an 89 percent increase from May to June in the number of people working on projects for CDOT.”
Stegman went on to say that perhaps the biggest influence of the stimulus package on construction has been on companies’ abilities to avoid firing employees.
“You have to understand that departments are facing significant cuts. We didn’t hit the cliff like many other industries, and the stimulus bill has allowed contractors not to lay people off. They’ve done some hiring, but more than anything, they’ve been able to maintain their workforce.”
Sandherr agreed with that notion, saying that 60 percent of construction firms nationwide with stimulus-funded work have saved or retained jobs because of the ARRA.

Spend, spend, spend
AGC maintains that the stimulus is working in some areas but expressed disappointment that money is not moving as fast as it should.
One reason the stimulus is having a limited impact on construction hiring and purchasing patterns, Sandherr said, is that outside of the transportation arena, little of the stimulus’ authorized construction dollars have resulted in actual construction work.
He noted that while the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for $4.6 billion in stimulus construction funds, the agency has only obligated $715 million and paid out $84 million.
While CDOT says that the construction industry has not “hit the cliff,” the national unemployment figures do not paint a rosy picture. Construction unemployment is at 17.4 percent, which is nearly double the national rate of 9.7 percent as of June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The stimulus is clearly working,” Sandherr said. “It just isn’t working fast enough for many construction workers in many communities.”

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By Don Knox, LAW WEEK COLORADO
Editor’s Note: Law Week editor Don Knox rounds up today’s court news.

The University of Northern Colorado theater professor accused of videotaping people as they used the toilet and shower in his home appeared briefly in court this morning.
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090730/NEWS/907309993/1051/rss

Attorney Witness: Suspect, Ex-Wife Were Civil
Attorney William Hagood, who represented Kevin Elmarr in his divorce from the woman he is accused of killing in 1987, said the couple’s split was not as tumultuous as reports at the time made it out to be. Hagood was among the first defense witnesses in Elmarr’s first-degree murder trial. Elmarr waived attorney-client privilege so he could testify.
http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=17290

High Stakes In Ruth’s Chris Aspen Trial As Judge Deliberates
The fate of Ruth’s Chris Steak House is now in the hands of a District Judge Denise Lynch, who will decide whether the struggling, upscale restaurant must remain committed to the seven years left on its downtown Aspen lease, which commands $35,412 a month.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090730/NEWS/907299964/1058

Alex Midyette Working Toward Plea Deal
Convicted child abuser Alex Midyette — who’s serving 16 years in prison — is getting closer to reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors in a bond-violation case, Paul McCormick, Midyette’s defense attorney, said Wednesday.
http://www.coloradodaily.com/news/2009/jul/29/alex-midyette-boulder-child-abuse/

Former Enron chief Skilling to be resentenced
Former Enron Corp. chief Jeffrey Skilling, convicted three years ago of fraud and being held in an Englewood jail, is scheduled to be resentenced Thursday after a federal appeals court vacated his 24-year sentence earlier this year. “If I were a betting man, I would say Judge Lake would sentence him to the low end of the guideline range and Skilling would get 15 1/2 years,” said Cliff Stricklin, a former prosecutor in the Enron case and an attorney with the Denver law firm of Holme, Roberts & Owen.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/29/enron.resentencing/

Krabloonik Sued Over Alleged Accident
A couple from Centennial, Colo., are suing Krabloonik Restaurant in Snowmass Village for an alleged dogsledding accident that injured each of them.
Dale and Linda Landry’s lawsuit was made public Wednesday in Pitkin County District Court in Aspen.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090730/NEWS/907299965/1077&ParentProfile=1058

Accused Embezzler Fails Bond Bid
A Denver appeals court Wednesday denied accused bank embezzler Scott Becker’s request to be released on bail pending his trial. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 against the former president of Meriden State Bank in a three-page order, but said, “This is a close case.”
http://www.cjonline.com/news/business/2009-07-29/accused_embezzler_fails_bond_bid

Sanity Report Delayed On Accused Murderer
Doctors at a state mental health hospital say they need more time to determine whether a Pear Park man was legally insane when he repeatedly shot his son in September.
http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2009/07/29/073009_7a_Grabe_folo.html

Have a trial you want to tell us about? Do you have questions about our future trial coverage? Send your queries to Peter Rossi at prossi@circuitmedia.com.

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By Alan Gottlieb, EDUCATION NEWS COLORADO
In a field as complex and simultaneously fast- and slow-moving as education, it’s easy to lose perspective. Each next “big” thing takes on monumental importance, only to be tossed aside and forgotten as soon as the next “big” thing comes along.
So it’s nice to get away once in a while, cleanse your mind and regain some perspective. Backpacking for a few days just now in the Flattops Wilderness certainly helped restore my perspective. Especially during those long minutes Monday night when, huddled in my exposed tent on the tundra at 11,600 feet, I listened to – and felt – a massive midnight thunderstorm rumble in. With each blinding flash of lightning I counted, one-one thousand, two-one thousand, waiting for the thunder, my agnostic soul teetering ever closer to fervent prayer.
I survived, shaken and sleep-deprived, but unscathed. And on this Wednesday morning my mind newly focused, I offer these thoughts and questions.

* Race to the Top, the Obama administration’s $4.3 billion education innovation competition, may turn out to be a genuine “big” thing. Certainly the money involved is big. U.S. and Colorado officials are making all the right noises. But one has to worry that any creative, groundbreaking initiative that passes through both federal and state bureaucracies (100-member work groups? What can they possibly accomplish other than rubber-stamping?) has high potential for producing a bland mash instead of a piquant piece de resistance. Colorado’s challenge will be to produce a plan so tightly conceived that its implementation cannot be compromised. The best way to measure this is by watching who fights against various elements of the plan, covertly if not overtly.
* Evaluating teachers at least in part based on how much growth students attain in their classes is so fundamental to improving education that it is hard to fathom people and organizations objecting to it. Of course “the devil is in the details,” but unless you believe that all testing is irredeemably flawed, how can test results not be an essential component? Especially when what you’re measuring is growth, not absolute scores?
* In education, everything else really is secondary to teacher quality. The major challenge is figuring out how to make education a true profession, in which practitioners have a significant degree of autonomy and a sense of efficacy. I’d wager that only a small percentage of highly capable people who leave teaching do so because of the children.
* Our state is adept at creating commissions, study groups and blue ribbon panels to ponder all manner of education issues. How often do these myriad bodies produce something surprising? How often is the outcome preordained?
* It will be refreshing when CSAP scores are released next week to see the focus on student growth, not “status.” But let’s not forget that status matters too. Measuring growth is a major leap forward in our state’s education data, and the sophistication of our data analysis. At the end of the day, however, growth doesn’t matter much if those doing the growing can’t hit certain absolute benchmarks. It’s a real accomplishment to move a student from reading at a third grade level in ninth grade to a ninth grade level in twelfth grade. But it’s not enough.
I’m sure that by next week I will have lost perspective again. But it feels good to see things clearly, if only for a few fleeting moments.
The author edits Education News Colorado.

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By Todd Engdahl, EDUCATION NEWS COLORADO
Denver lawyer Herbert Fenster had a surefire way to get the attention of the Long-Term Fiscal Stability Commission Wednesday – he suggested privatizing the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus and said he’s planning to file a federal lawsuit challenging the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
The commission, which includes six legislators and 10 citizen members, is working to develop proposals for modernizing Colorado’s tangled financial system. Wednesday was kind of “open mike” day for the panel, as it took testimony from more than 40 witnesses about Colorado’s fiscal structure and history, programs to cut and programs to save and lots of other issues.
Much of the testimony was predictable, based on the affiliations of witnesses, and some of it wasn’t particularly relevant to the commission’s task.
Fenster’s turn at the witness table didn’t come until after 4 p.m., and he got the commission’s attention immediately when he said, “I’m here to advocate today for the privatization of the University of Colorado’s campus at Boulder.”
After explaining his reasons for putting CU out of state government, he popped another surprise by announcing that this fall he plans to file a federal lawsuit challenging TABOR on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee that states have a republican (meaning representative) form of government and that various legislature fund transfers forced by TABOR violate a federal false claims law.
Asked by Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, whom he’s representing, Fenster said, “I cannot name for you at this time the plaintiffs. There will be several, including some state legislators.”
Most the discussion, though, focused on his plan for CU.
Fenster argued the campus is underdeveloped, can’t successfully compete for students and is undersized by 10,000 students, especially in its graduate schools.
“The University of Colorado is one of the least performing, most archaic, most dysfunctional” public universities outside the Deep South, he said.
“There is no better candidate in the U.S. than that campus … it would gain enormously from privatization.”
Fenster suggested that the campus could be privatized in phases, starting with conversion into a public authority, as already has been done with CU’s University Hospital in Aurora. The university could end up as a state-chartered institution (like Cornell University in New York, he said) with guarantees of access and cost built in for Colorado residents.
Commission members asked about how the university would be governed. (CU and its board of regents were established by the state constitution.) Saying he’s not a supporter of elected university boards, Fenster said, “Ideally you would not have an elected board of regents.”
“There’s got to be some mechanism that protects accessibility and affordability,” said panel member Shawn Conway, a Weld County commissioner.
(Only about 7 percent of CU’s budget comes from state tax revenues now, perhaps meaning few savings if the state did privatize Boulder. Some higher ed leaders, including CU’s Bruce Benson, pushed a bill last spring that would have allowed colleges to set their own tuition rates and control financial aid. But legislators had no stomach for that, and the idea quickly died after virtually no public debate.)
(Fenster is senior counsel at McKenna, Long and Aldridge, a Denver and Washington, D.C., law firm.)
(According to his biography on the firm website, Fenster has various connections with CU. According to past news reports, Fenster represented then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton for a time in the long-running Indian royalty claims lawsuit and in 1998 won a $3.8 billion judgment against the federal government on behalf of General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas.)
“I thank you very much for your interesting testimony,” deadpanned Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, vice chair of the commission, moving on to yet another speaker.
The rest of the day, quite frankly, wasn’t quite as interesting. Here are some snippets:
Former CU President Hank Brown: “Colorado is in a huge state of financial crisis of enormous proportions.” But, Brown suggested an oddly small-change group of possible savings, like putting more students on work-study so universities wouldn’t need so many employees, eliminating the unpaid Colorado Commission on Higher Education and having the lieutenant governor also head a state agency, saving one executive’s salary.
Former state Sen. Norma Anderson: Always good for a snappy line, the tax and finance expert said, “You have so many exemptions from sales taxes it’s a crime.” Referring to the defeat last fall of Referendum O, which would have made it harder to put proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot, she advised, “I would put the same thing on the ballot every year just like Doug Bruce put TABOR on the ballot every year” until it passed.
Former Winter Park CEO Jerry Groswald: Colorado’s constitution has taken “the law of unintended consequences beyond what anybody could image,” said Groswald, who has been active in recent University of Denver government reform studies. “In Colorado we have fallen prey to bumper-sticker politics,” adding that voters “are largely uninformed or misinformed when they go to the ballot box on any fiscal issue.”
Mike Krause, criminal justice expert at the Independence Institute: Growing prison budgets are “an irresponsible spending spree.”
Jeffrey Zax, CU economics professor: Noting that even squirrels store up food but that Colorado has inadequate state reserves, he quipped, “The idea that the state of Colorado can’t do what a squirrel can do is kind of disturbing.” (Zax gave the commission a mini-econ lecture, and commissioner Jeff Coors if he could take one of the professor’s classes.)
After four meetings filled with testimony, the commission next month is supposed to start proposing ideas and discussing them.

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By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Juvenile sentencing reform advocates are frustrated with what they see as the ineffectiveness of the juvenile clemency board, the program created by Gov. Bill Ritter to potentially reduce or absolve the sentences of juvenile offenders. Meanwhile, supporters of the program say the board is properly serving its function.
When Ritter established the juvenile clemency board two years ago, many juvenile sentencing reform advocates applauded the move. Lawmakers had changed the law in Colorado in 2006 so that inmates who committed crimes as juveniles but were sentenced as adults could be eligible for parole after 40 years in prison. But the new law was not retroactive, leaving 45 Colorado inmates with their original lengthy sentences and most of them without the possibility of parole.
Both sides of the issue debated the case Monday on Colorado Matters, a show on Colorado Public Radio. Mary Ellen Johnson of the Pendulum Foundation, a Colorado non-profit that serves juveniles incarcerated in the adult prison system, said she thought the board, which passes on its recommendation to Ritter who then has the final say, would have granted clemency by now because she believes there have been several good candidates.
One of those candidates who applied and was denied clemency is Trevor Jones. According to Johnson, Jones — who was sentenced for a supposed accidental 1996 shooting that occurred when he was 17 years old — has had a near-perfect record while serving his sentence.
“What more could a candidate do?” Johnson asked on the radio program.
Dietrick Mitchell has also had his case reviewed and denied by the clemency board. According to his mother, who appeared on Colorado Matters, Mitchell was 16 years old when he was in a hit-and-run accident that killed a 14-year-old boy. Mitchell, who was drunk when the hit-and-run occurred, was sentenced at the time to life without parole, though his sentence was reduced to 40 years because of an error discovered after sentencing.
“If a Dietrick Mitchell can’t come out after a hit and run, I can’t see anyone else coming out,” said Mitchell on the radio program.
Jeanne Smith, chairwoman for the juvenile clemency board, said there has been confusion in the public over the board’s role. The juvenile clemency board isn’t in place to undo the previous state statute that allowed life without parole for juveniles, but to recognize the extraordinary cases that deserve to be looked at again, she said.
“There was the expectation in some sectors of the community that as soon as the board was created, the prison doors were going to open and these persons…would suddenly be getting out of prison,” she said to Warner. “That’s not what clemency is for.”
The executive order establishing the juvenile clemency board laid out certain criteria that the board should consider when determining clemency. The criteria includes looking at if the offender has a terminal or grave illness, has committed any acts of heroism, or if the sentencing was unreasonably harsh.
Mitchell argued that her son’s sentence qualifies as being unfairly harsh. She said that after looking into countless hit-and-run cases involving juveniles, a 40-year sentence, much less life without parole, is generally unheard of. Smith, however, implied that the eight cases the board has reviewed so far haven’t fit the board’s criteria.
Johnson is calling for changes to the juvenile clemency board going forward. She said the board should include fewer people involved in law enforcement and more who could be considered neutral. Additionally, she charged that the criteria for the board should be changed to reflect that children have a different brain development that leads them to make different choices than adults.
For her part, Smith said on Colorado Matters that the board does take into account the particulars of the case, including the juvenile mindset and their role and involvement in the crime that landed them behind bars.
“I think over time you will see (clemency) happen,” she told Warner, “But the expectation that it was going to be done in the first dozen cases I think was a little misplaced.”

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Gov. Bill Ritter Wednesday defended President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan, arguing that if it weren’t for the funding, Colorado would be in even worse shape.
Speaking at the Downtown Denver Partnership’s Board of Directors meeting, Ritter said it is absurd to dismiss the stimulus plan only five months into the process. He said if it weren’t for the estimated $7 billion Colorado is expected to receive in direct funding and tax relief, the state would be struggling to close much more than the $384 million budget shortfall anticipated for next year.
In fact, Ritter said lawmakers would need to come up with another $500-$600 million to close the shortfall, and more than $1 billion over the next two years.
“Without the recovery act dollars, by now we would have had to throw in the white flag,” he said. But Jeff Crank, state director for the conservative think tank Americans For Prosperity, said a better way to stimulate the economy is to filter dollars into the hands of ordinary citizens and let them improve the economy through sales and property tax revenues.
He added that massive government spending will only come back to haunt Americans down the road.
“We’ve got every state in America, every community, every family right now is having to make tough choices, and this state’s no different — it should be making tough choices,” said Crank. “But this stimulus is exactly the opposite of that. It’s just saying, ‘We don’t have to make tough choices; let’s just spend it now and pass it along to our kids.’”
Ritter Wednesday added that Colorado is in better economic shape than other states because of its booming green sectors, including creating green jobs through work with alternative energies. He said the state’s New Energy Economy is why it is a full two percentage points below the national unemployment rate. Colorado stood at 7.6 percent for June. The national unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent.
The governor added that work done in the Legislature last year will also contribute to the state pulling itself out of fiscal woes. He pointed to a new funding stream for transportation through increased vehicle registration fees; a bill allowing students to earn a diploma while simultaneously completing a college associate’s degree; and health care reform legislation that created a hospital provider fee that is expected to cover more than 100,000 additional Coloradans who do not have insurance.
Ritter is also hopeful that Colorado will earn a share of more than $4 billion in federal funding for education. He said Colorado is poised better than other states to receive a portion of Obama’s Race to the Top grant money.
While some lawmakers are suggesting eliminating or lowering tax breaks and incentives to businesses, Ritter said incentives and breaks that lure companies to Colorado are necessary for the overall long-term well-being of the state. All told, however, the governor reaffirmed that significant budget cuts will be necessary to balance next year’s budget.
“Cuts will be painful … virtually every service we offer to the public will be impacted,” said Ritter. “But we will have a balanced budget.”

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By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO
Welcome to Denver, Ethan Axelrod. Despite what anybody tells you, Colorado’s capitol press corps needs you.
Our capitol press corps needs anyone, frankly, who takes an active interest in journalism and works at practicing our craft. We have been losing journalists by the handful, leaving gaps in the coverage of official Colorado.
It will be nice to soon see you, the son of the President’s image maker, milling about our two capitol media rooms as the Denver bureau chief of The Huffington Post. Those media rooms currently are some of the loneliest places in the Mile High City.
But don’t expect a warm welcome from your media brethren or our legislative machine. And no, that’s not because of your famous last name.

The ‘B’ word
It has to do with your status as a practitioner of what’s referred to as the “new media,” a term that will earn you contempt among our few remaining hometown journalists. You see, there are a lot of derisive terms in Colorado politics, but none more so than “blogger.”
Being a blogger — especially for a left-leaning site like HuffPo — means you’re all but certain to be denied access to the House and Senate floors, where the good interviewing gets done. (I’m not a blogger; I’m a trade journalist, but where’s the distinction?) And you won’t be allowed to work out of those two rapidly emptying media rooms under Colorado’s golden dome, which the old-school media enjoys rent-free (but not conflict-free).
That’s not all.
If you decide to take photographs during heated floor debates, your only option will be to shoot photos of the tops of your elected officials’ heads. That’s because you’ll be snapping from the third-floor gallery. My advice: Bring a long lens, and wait for when your target politico stares toward heaven.
If you decide to fight this selective ostracism, you will soon find yourself completely ostracized. If you are like me, you’ll threaten to sue but decide that the journalists who decide who gets in and who doesn’t simply don’t deserve the satisfaction of the extra attention.
Don’t look to the Senate president or the House speaker to save you, either. So far, they’ve sided with the mainstream media to keep out the bloggers and the videographers and any other media fewer than 10 years old. It doesn’t matter how many floor seats and media-room desks sit empty; Colorado just says “no” to new media.
The House clerk and the Senate secretary won’t come to your aid, either. They’ll be happy to take your application, but they’ll be the ones who’ll officially deny you the right to use a Capitol desk.

Can’t shine your light
Does it matter that you live in Colorado and recently attend Colorado College? Or that you’re a trained journalist, or that you’ll hire other trained journalists?
No, no, no and no.
I’ve lived in Colorado for more than 40 years and have worked in Denver journalism for a quarter of a century. I used to edit the business sections of both of Denver’s dailies. Today, I edit one trade newspaper and two trade websites. It is the websites, neither partisan, that have raised the hackles of Colorado capitol’s media elite. It’s as if they never heard of the web. They denied us under the guise that the websites operate are “businesses,” forgetting that virtually all Colorado media are for-profit operations.
Why will they deny you?
Well, it could be that your new boss is Arianna Huffington, a queen of the culture wars; or that you write with an East Coast bias; or that you chose to tell your stories with the aid of video. The horror!
Columnists at The Denver Post and the other dead-tree media face none of the hurdles you do, even if your coverage is straight down the middle, politically speaking. You’re a renegade because your journalism is a product of this millennium, not the previous one.

Future’s brighter — it has to be
We who toil against the system foresee a day when the new media is allowed to play on the same field as the old. How long will it take? After a decade of protests and denials, even Aspen Mountain allowed snowboarders to “ride” alongside skiers.
You may ask: Is there a way to circumvent the “Colorado welcome” you are about to endure?
Perhaps.
Maybe, your dad can make a phone call …

Don Knox edits Law Week Colorado, a weekly newspaper for lawyers, and State Bill Colorado an online legislative news service.

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