STATE BILL COLORADO
Here’s what news organizations around the state are saying about the release of a list of principles that guide Republican candidates, including gubernatorial candidate and former congressman Scott McInnis. The full platform follows.

Associated Press: (The platform) calls for opposing tax hikes and significant new fees and backs loosening oil and gas regulations and promoting development of renewable energy and nuclear power. It also backs requiring employers to verify their workers are in the country legally and reinstating Owens’ ban on taxpayer funding to organizations that provide abortions.
The Denver Post: “(T)he former Congressman and likely GOP nominee left some questions unanswered, such as how he would fund a $1 billion-plus yearly transportation deficit in Colorado while keeping his promises to reverse a car registration fee hike, cap state spending limits and keep taxes low. All were included in the agenda forged in meetings with top Republicans.”
KDVR: The GOP platform’s focus is largely on fiscal issues, though it also suggests reinstating a ban on state funding for health providers that support abortion rights, such as Planned Parenthood, as well as forcing employers to use a workplace verification mechanism to ensure their workers are legal U.S. citizens — enough perhaps to energize the social conservatives who preferred Penry, as well as the grass-roots activists on the Democratic side.
Westword: “It’s not a 600-page policy document,” McInnis spokesman Sean Duffy stresses. “It’s a kind of consensus framework that obviously distinguishes us from the Democrats — and it tells folks who might be running for city council or any other office, ‘Here are some ideas, some principles that we think are good.’ And they can look at them and decide for themselves. Nobody is doing Republican saliva tests.”
The Durango Herald: McInnis zeroed in on Ritter’s environmental rules for the natural-gas industry, which has been hit hard by the recession. “If this governor wants to talk green, he should have been talking green before he put the toughest regulations in the United States on the industry that is providing tens of thousands of jobs to our state,” McInnis said.

PLATFORM FOR PROSPERITY
November 2009
PREAMBLE
Colorado has fallen on hard times. We’ve seen our state economy hemorrhage jobs at the fastest pace since the 1940’s, and watched as personal incomes have declined more sharply than at any time since the 1950’s.
Bill Ritter and the Democrat-controlled Legislature responded by imposing massive increases in taxes and fees, broadly increasing the state payroll – despite an alleged “hiring freeze.” They have embraced an agenda that has increased the cost of doing business in Colorado, driven investment out of our state, and killed jobs.
Coloradans can’t afford another four years of Gov. Ritter’s failed policies. Republicans have better ideas, centered on common sense, innovation, respecting our taxpayers and businesses, and keeping government in check.
We believe that big government breeds small ideas. But smaller government gives citizens the freedom to breed big ideas.
Fortunately, voters will have the opportunity in 2010 to end the Democrat Party’s monopoly on power in Colorado and to restore checks and balances to an out-of-touch — and out-of-control — state government.
As Republican officeholders, and citizens seeking public office, we will restore faith in our government and prosperity to our state by putting forward the following Platform for Prosperity.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: Returning Colorado to Prosperity
We will use our voices, votes and veto pen to improve and transform Colorado’s business climate so that our state is again a leader among the states.
We will:
• keep Colorado a low-tax state;
• put a top priority on investing in physical infrastructure (roads, bridges and water systems) and our human infrastructure (higher education and workforce training);
• pro-actively promote and encourage business investment and expansion in key Colorado job sectors;
• oppose unreasonable regulations, fees and business mandates;
• oppose efforts to weaken Colorado’s medical malpractice or construction defects tort protections;
• repeal the Ritter Administration’s executive order unionizing state government;
• appoint “pro-jobs” leaders to key government regulatory and oversight bodies.
Restoring Common Sense to Colorado’s Budget
We commit to using our voices, votes and veto pen to restore fiscal common sense and respect for Colorado’s taxpayers. We will:
• oppose the systematic campaign of Democrats to increase taxes, significant fees, levies and surcharges without a vote of the people;
• restore the cap on state spending, and, until it is restored, oppose – and veto — spending above an annual 6 percent increase;
• oppose those who would use Colorado’s current budget challenges as a pretext to weaken taxpayer protections in the Constitution or in statute;
• support the creation of a Rainy Day Fund that will cushion the effects of economic emergencies, but will not allow politicians to get access to merely fund pet projects.
Reforming Government and Challenging the Status Quo
We commit to using our voices, votes and veto pen to:
• undertake a comprehensive review of state government to identify and eliminate waste, fraud, excess and abuse, freeing up dollars to spend on core areas that benefit the economy;
• conduct an evaluation of the state’s boards, commissions and task forces and look for ways to achieve savings through consolidation.
More Energy, More Jobs: A Comprehensive Energy Policy
We commit to using our voices, votes and veto pen to:
• support legislation, and revisions to state rules, that will promote the responsible development of all sources of energy, including wind, solar, hydroelectric, oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power;
• appoint individuals to key energy regulatory bodies who view Colorado’s energy resources as a strategic asset that, in balance with protecting the environment, can produce more energy for America and more jobs for Colorado.
Controlling Health Care Costs for Families and Business
We commit to using our voices, votes and veto pen to support patient-driven reforms to contain the growing costs of healthcare — a growing burden on patients, their families, employers and our economy.
We will:
• support portability of coverage from job to job;
• reinstate the Owens-era enforcement of the Constitutional ban on taxpayer funding for organizations that provide abortions;
• support giving patients the right to purchase health insurance across state lines;
• oppose efforts to roll back Colorado’s landmark medical malpractice protections;
• oppose any effort to bring single-payer healthcare to Colorado.
Improving Education and Expanding Opportunity
We commit to using our voices, votes and veto pen to:
• protect the rights of home school families;
• expand school choice in the form of charter schools, magnet schools and for at-risk students in under-performing public schools;
Defending Citizenship and the Rule of Law
We commit to using our voices, votes and veto pen to:
• support a mandatory workplace verification mechanism that will assist employers in ensuring that their employees are in the United States legally;
• oppose so-called “sanctuary” policies, which violate state and federal law;
• work to block the award of state grant dollars to any local government enacting such a policy.
Pushing Back Against Growing Federal Power
We commit to using our voices, votes and veto pen to push back on a federal government that is too big, too intrusive, and all-too-eager to seize power from the states. We believe in protecting states’ rights under the Tenth Amendment. We oppose future “stimulus” bills or other federal spending bills that serve no valid economic purpose and only add to the federal deficit.
Keeping Communities Safe
We will give law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need to keep communities and families safe.
We will:
• end the Ritter Administration’s early release program for criminals;
• oppose any legislation that would curtail the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms;
• support far tougher sentences for child sex predators;
Restoring the security that comes with a quality job is at the core of our Platform for Prosperity.
Governor Ritter and the Democrat-controlled Legislature have chosen a path, in these troubled times, that has ignored basic economic and fiscal responsibility and cost this state hundreds of jobs every day. They have turned back the clock and returned to outmoded and discredited tax-and-spend policies.
With this Platform for Prosperity, we will restore Colorado to its leading role as an innovator and job-creator among the states. We will create a leaner and more efficient government. We will expand job opportunities for our youth so that they will stay in Colorado and not be forced to pursue opportunities in other states. We will work together, tirelessly, to restore the economic security that has been taken from families all over Colorado.
Together, we will pursue one central truth: A good day starts with a good job.