From The Denver Post: Last week, 867 days after the taxi drivers who formed Mile High Cab asked state regulators if they could provide service to metro Denver — pretty please — they received the answer to their final appeal: No. They were told to shelve their dreams and spare existing cab companies the prospect of “destructive competition,” whatever that may be.

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From The Aurroa Sentinel: In the annoying lexicon of politi-babble, there are few jingles as wrong-headed as the call for government to run like a business. The government is by no means a business, and it should never be run by one.

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By Ari Armstrong, FACE THE STATE

If you think corporate welfare “creates jobs,” you might be a recent Colorado governor.

As governor, Bill Ritter signed “an unprecedented 57 clean-energy bills into law,” a January 5 release from Colorado State University reviews. Now Ritter will join the university’s Center for the New Energy Economy, drawing a privately funded $300,000 annual salary.

Whether wind and solar energy actually can significantly reduce carbon emissions remains debatable. The online news source Face the State recently reported that an $11 million “new energy” project in Fort Collins actually relies partly on dirty diesel. The irregularity and wide dispersion of wind and solar energy make them difficult to harness.

But advocates of the “new energy economy” do not merely claim that alternative energy reduces carbon emissions. They claim it benefits the economy as well. Such claims about the alleged economic benefits of “new energy” rest on basic economic fallacies.

In a free market, consumers turn to new energy sources when they offer lower costs and better quality than the competition. For example, in the late 1800s consumers turned from whale oil to the “new energy” of petroleum. Advances in nuclear power or some other energy source may in turn largely replace coal and oil without political interference.

Political interference in the market is precisely what Ritter advocates, and that is why his policies harm the economy rather than help it. Ritter’s “new energy economy” relies on a combination of political controls and corporate welfare that raise your energy bills and your taxes.

Last year Ritter signed a bill “requiring that 30 percent of electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2020,” a release from the governor’s office notes. The fallacy is that the bill “will create thousands of new jobs.”

Ritter’s claims about jobs rest on what 19th Century French economist Frederic Bastiat called the “childish illusion” that such measures do anything other than reallocate wealth and wages. Bastiat urges us to consider the unseen as well as the politically obvious. Ritter’s controls will destroy jobs in the oil and coal industries, and they will destroy jobs that consumers would otherwise finance, if they weren’t paying higher energy costs.

Another document from the governor’s office claims, “Ritter’s vision and strategies are helping to create and save jobs, support small businesses, increase manufacturing and spur innovation.” The document lists various businesses subsidized by the state, including Vestas Blades, IBM, and Abound Solar. Ritter conveniently neglects to mention the costs.

Corporate welfare does not just fall from the sky like mannah from Heaven. It comes from taxpayers. That money is no longer available to those who earned it to create jobs and support businesses in other sectors. While Ritter creates jobs with one hand, he destroys them with the other. The difference is that the jobs Ritter creates serve political interests rather than the interests of consumers.

Consider, as Bastiat might do, the logical absurdities of Ritter’s position. If mandating “new” energy creates jobs, then why stop at 30 percent? Why not 100 percent? Why not expand subsidies 1,000 fold? Why not outlaw all coal, oil, and natural gas in Colorado, and force every property owner to install solar panels and windmills? Think of all the new jobs that would require!

Of course, Ritter could argue that, insofar as he has attracted federal funding for “new energy,” he has helped forcibly transfer wealth and jobs from citizens in other states to citizens in Colorado.

But that would seem to be a losing game. Last year the Denver Business Journal noted that “Colorado ranked 33rd among the 50 states in the amount of per-capita federal spending.” If Ritter can “create jobs” in Colorado by bilking the citizens of other states, then politicians elsewhere can do the same to us. The net result is not more jobs, but more political favoritism and more economic waste.
Ritter’s “new energy economy” is built on old economic fallacies about the alleged benefits of central planning and corporate welfare. For productive employment, we should instead turn to a subsidy-free “new liberty economy” that favors free markets and rewards businesses that satisfy customers rather than politicians.

Ari Armstrong, a guest writer for the Independence Institute, publishes FreeColorado.com and moderates Liberty In the Books.

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By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO

HOT CHOCOLATE IS YOUR ONLY SALVATION: Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper will be inaugurated today. But why go when several Denver TV stations are streaming the event live?

* 9News
* 7News
* CBS4
* Fox31

This said, the incoming governor promises a short speech (11 minutes!), according to The Post.

SUE BIRCH SENDOFF: The Visiting Nurse Association in Craig held a reception to honor Colorado’s next head of Health Care Policy and Financing, the Craig Daily Press writes.

TRANSPORTATION SWITCH: Suzanne Williams, recovering with her family and others from a fatal car accident, won’t head the Senate Transportation Committee, John Morse decides.

WILL GARCIA APPOINTMENT SLOW HIGHER-ED’S REVOLVING DOOR? That’s what Education News Colorado reports as a possibility.

CONSTITUENT SECURITY CONCERNS: Everyone’s re-thinking grocery meetings in the wake of the Arizona shootings. Denver Daily News story here. Denver Post editorial here.

MAYBE NOT SO MUCH OF A GIFT: On his last full day in office, Gov. Bill Ritter dished out a number of college-board appointments, including two to people he’s worked closely with: House Speaker Terrance Carroll and State Rep. Buffie McFadyen. With higher-ed budget cuts looming, these trusteeships may not be as fun as they once were.

REASON TO WORRY? Benefits to state employees may take a hit this year when lawmakers convene later this week, reports Debi Brazzale of Colorado News Agency.

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Analysis by Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO

Picture this: A Colorado governor, fuming after reading a steady stream of negative headlines about the lavish spending of a well-heeled statewide organization, successfully leans on that organization’s board of directors. Coolly, it cans the offending CEO.

Industry officials howl. But the firing sticks.

The CEO in question? No, not Pinnacol’s Kenneth Ross. It was Thomas A. Levin, helmsman of nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield in the early 1990s. And the governor? It was Roy Romer.

The boardroom showdown of governor vs. CEO drew headlines for months in Denver’s major dailies — yes, there were two then. More than anything, the showdown underscored Romer’s willingness to use the power of his elective pulpit to send management sinners packing.

Point made.

Fast forward to 2011. Ken Ross and his predecessors have enviably managed Pinnacol Assurance, the state’s quasi-governmental worker’s compensation authority. The organization, once nearly broke, enjoys coffers so flush that Democrats at Colorado’s Capitol last year attempted a raid in part to stem the state’s own budget crisis. The attempt fails, but Pinnacol does not survive unscathed.

Unfortunately for Pinnacol, the current CEO happens to possess the Tom Levin gene: When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. Pebble Beach? Check. French-cooking school? Check.

Denver’s TV news has been awash this week in coverage of the Pinnacol overspending. Senate President Brandon Shaffer called Friday for Ross’ head. This morning, so did The Denver Post.

There is a difference, however, between 1993 and 2011.

Then, the board of Blue Cross was stacked with well-meaning corporate execs with big reputations and long resumes. One of them, prominent Denver banker LaRae Orullian, was confident in her judgment of Levin’s ability.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a time when Mr. Levin lost the support of the board,” she said then. “We still felt he was the best in the business.”

So why did she vote to fire him?

“We knew we couldn’t keep him.”

Unlike Blue Cross of the 1990s, Pinnacol’s board of 2011 is much less known. The most recognizable name is that of a local auto dealer whose back-of-the-vehicle nameplate graces many a vehicle.

A list of the board members, including the start of their board tenure as well as their day jobs, appears below.

This board appears to be much more insular, as well. As this morning’s Denver Post editorial noted, four happened to travel on the same Pebble Beach junket that drew all the negative coverage. Surely, The Post noted, these members won’t race to fire Ross.

But still, you have to wonder:

– Despite some of its members’ shared culpability, will this board nevertheless send the head sinner packing?

– Will the incoming governor, John Hickenlooper, as Roy Romer before him, use the power of his elective pulpit to force a decision?

– Or does this test of wills end in more political standoffs, as they did during the Bill Ritter years?

Stand by, Colorado.

Don Knox edits State Bill Colorado and Law Week Colorado. He is a former business editor of The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News.

PINNACOL’S BOARD

Gary O. Johnson, chair, joined the board in 2003. He is president of Strategic Insurance Consultants Inc., a company that helps independent agents merge with or purchase other insurance agencies.

Holman F. Carter, employee representative, joined Pinnacol’s board in 2010. He is president and business agent of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 and a member of the Colorado AFL-CIO executive council.

Ryan Hettich, employer representative, joined the board in 2006. Hettich is the owner of a Colorado Springs-based company in the business of retail dry-cleaning, textile restoration, and commercial real estate holdings.

Robert J. (R.J.) Jolly, employer farm and ranch representative, has been a member of Pinnacol’s board since 2003. Jolly is co-owner and manager of Barbara Jolly and Sons Ranch LLC, primarily a cattle ranching enterprise.

Debra E. Lovejoy, employee representative, joined the board in 2003. She is vice president of Employer’s Resources of Colorado Inc., which provides outsourced human resources services to Colorado businesses.

Robert C. McDaniel, finance/investment representative, joined Pinnacol’s board in 2010. He is the managing director of Metrix Advisors LLC, a management consulting focused on advising companies operating in heavily regulated business environments.

Paul Suss, employer representative, joined the board in 2004. He is president of Suss Buick Pontiac GMC, a family owned and operated automobile dealership.

Richard Rivera, employer representative, joined Pinnacol’s board in 2010. He is the president of Emergi-Medical Care Center in Pueblo and owner of HealthTrac Walk-In Clinic in Canon City

Nonie Rivale Willisch, employee representative, joined the board in 2010. Since 1998, she has sold workers’ compensation and commercial insurance for CRS Insurance Brokerage Inc. in Denver, focusing on the construction industry.

Source: Pinnacol website

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By Brad Jones, FACE THE STATE

When even The New York Times takes notice of the toll taken by organized labor on the public purse, you know such concerns weren’t just conjured up by a vast, right-wing conspiracy. Nor are they the product of slick PR on behalf of corporate board rooms. No, the fiscal woes of state governments in the wake of a crushing recession are very real, in Colorado as well as in states across the nation. And years-long concessions by those states to unions that have organized public employees have substantially compounded the cost of providing basic government services.

So, it’s only fitting that it should fall to The Times—that old gray lady and protectress of union-friendly liberals everywhere—to report the mad dash by a number of cash-strapped states to get out from under suffocating relationships with unions. As The Times notes:

…In Ohio, the new Republican governor, following the precedent of many other states, wants to ban strikes by public school teachers.

Some new governors, most notably Scott Walker of Wisconsin, are even threatening to take away government workers’ right to form unions and bargain contracts.

“We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots,” Mr. Walker, a Republican, said in a speech. “The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers.”

… But it is not only Republicans who are seeking to rein in unions. … California’s new Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, is promising to review the benefits received by government workers in his state, which faces a more than $20 billion budget shortfall over the next 18 months.

Without a doubt, unionization of state employees can be a budget buster. Look no further than in places where collective bargaining arrived only recently. As noted by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, for example, payroll costs have surged for Washington’s state government since that state adopted collective bargaining just nine years ago.

One of the legacies of departing Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter is his still-controversial, 2007 executive order effectively opening the door to collective bargaining for more than 30,000 Colorado state government employees. Though the Ritter administration doggedly maintained that the order didn’t allow collective bargaining per se—in which, if labor and management don’t agree on pay and other contract provisions, the dispute goes to binding arbitration—the “partnerships” permitted in Ritter’s order amount to the same thing over the long haul. That’s because unions are granted the power of acting as “exclusive representative” for key state employee groups, which, of course, only creates upward pressure on pay and benefits as time goes by.

If governors and legislatures in even the union strongholds of the old Rust Belt can muster the courage to take on unions—and spare taxpayers—maybe here in Colorado, where union clout is concentrated mostly in the public sector, it shouldn’t be all that difficult to restore more sensible policies. Maybe Gov.-elect John Hickenlooper could save the General Assembly the trouble and rescind Ritter’s folly, also by executive order. What a great way to show that he really does want to give the hard-pressed public a break.

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By Floyd Ciruli, CIRULI & ASSOCIATES

John Hickenlooper’s early moves are trying to avoid comparisons with Bill Ritter’s weak start.

• Hickenlooper’s first few appointments drew from the legislature, which addresses his own lack of legislative experience and what became a steady criticism of Ritter’s weak legislative relations.

• In announcing his economic development strategy, which involves an economic plan being developed in all 64 counties and then consolidated into 9 regions before becoming a state plan, he made sure to say it shouldn’t take a year, harking back to Ritter’s penchant for year long or longer task forces. Hickenlooper gave them 4 months. At a minimum, this should be a jobs program for economic development officials.

• In picking Joe Garcia, Al White and Christine Scanlan, Hickenlooper leans heavily on non-Denver and out-of-state appointments. Between Ritter’s in-house team and several high-profile Denver appointments (Don Mares and Ari Zavaras), his administration took on an early Denver cast.

• Although it’s early, Hickenlooper is likely to promote a November ballot initiative in 2011. He likes working with well-placed interest groups, and higher education may be the most needy and most ready to move. Ritter passed in his first year and then lost the severance tax initiative in his second year. Governors who can effectively use the ballot are much more powerful and effective than those who can’t.

A good part of the Ritter legacy will be Hickenlooper trying to avoid his mistakes.

Floyd Ciruli founded Ciruli Associates, a research and consulting firm specializing in public policy, communication and strategic planning, in 1985. Mr. Ciruli is a pollster and political analyst for 9-KUSA TV, KOA Radio, The Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post. In addition, he has appeared on NBC Nightly News, Lehrer News Hour, CNN, Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume, the BBC and National Public Radio. Recent analysis has appeared in Time Magazine and The Economist. He hosts www.ciruli.com for political news and information on the web. Mr. Ciruli holds a law degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and a bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA. Mr. Ciruli is a member of the American Political Science Association and the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). He is president of the council of the Pacific Chapter of AAPOR. He is a board member of the Social Science Foundation of the University of Denver Josef Korbel School of International Studies, the Georgetown Law Alumni Board and the Past-President of the Denver Athletic Club. He is a native of Pueblo, Colorado.

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By Floyd Ciruli

Like the truncated administration of Bill Ritter, Gov. Elect-John Hickenlooper faces similar challenges moving into state government.

• He has only secondhand knowledge of state government and the legislature. Selecting his legislative team and alliances with major lobbyists is key.

• Colorado governors have much less power than Denver mayors. Fortunately, Hickenlooper knows how to use the bully pulpit to push his agenda.

• The capital press corp is much more aggressive and longer serving than the frequently changing Denver City Hall reporters. Hickenlooper will need to develop a thick skin.

• Special interests in the capitol are represented by an army of lobbyists who also tend to run political campaigns and are often associated with their preferred parties and legislative blocs. How to say no and yet not make enemies is a talent hard to cultivate.

• Ritter was often blindsided by his nominal legislative allies serving some interest group or party purpose. Having lost the House, Hickenlooper likely avoids that problem, but House Republicans will be interested in building their majority and quickly testing if Hickenlooper might become the second one-term governor in Colorado’s recent history.

Floyd Ciruli founded Ciruli Associates, a research and consulting firm specializing in public policy, communication and strategic planning, in 1985. Mr. Ciruli is a pollster and political analyst for 9-KUSA TV, KOA Radio, The Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post. In addition, he has appeared on NBC Nightly News, Lehrer News Hour, CNN, Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume, the BBC and National Public Radio.

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Rent control ordinances have been illegal in Colorado, and rightly so, since 1981. That is not about to change. But you wouldn’t know it from listening to the powerful coalition determined to kill House Bill 1017.

We’re proud of this bill and what it will accomplish. This bill will do 3 things: it will allow towns and developers to negotiate for affordable housing in new developments, it will help people who live and work in places where there is a lack of affordable housing, and it will preserve public investment and make sure taxpayer dollars are not wasted.

It will do this by returning affordable housing laws back to the way they were prior to conflicting court rulings, so that cities, towns and counties, not the state government or the courts, have the authority to make local affordable housing decisions.

HB 1017 is a pro-economic development, pro-free market bill. Opponents claim that the legislation will bring “New York style rent control” to Colorado. These are scare tactics and the claim is false.

Approximately 250,000 families in Colorado still struggle to afford rent or find adequate housing. Across the State, demand for decent affordable rental housing equates to waiting lists of 5 years or more. When renters pay too large a portion of their wages for housing, they have little left to cover other necessities like food and health care. This can lead to increased use of community social services and increased demand on the finite resources of nonprofits, municipalities and the State.

Even opponents of this bill have conceded that that rents throughout Colorado have accelerated faster than inflation over the past decade, and that Colorado has a documented need for housing at the very low income levels. We can’t rely exclusively on federal programs to provide for the state’s affordable rental needs.

HB 1017 mandates nothing but simply allows local communities to find their own solutions to housing needs. HB 1017 encourages local creativity and non-reliance on federal government funding to provide adequate affordable rental housing as a unique community defines such need.

Any discussion of income levels and corresponding ability to afford housing is a complex equation when considering that Colorado’s communities are as diverse as our mountains are to our prairies. By allowing local governments to help developers with incentives to help meet specific, local housing needs, HB 1017 promotes economic activity, creates jobs, and stabilizes communities.

Rent for a two-bedroom apartment rose in 89 percent of 210 national markets studied, according to a study released just this week. But, ultimately housing is a local, not a national issue. It is not appropriate for Colorado to continue to restrict private developers and local communities from willingly and voluntarily contracting to meet housing need. This is especially true in times of tight budgets, when the State of Colorado has limited resources to help local communities with affordable housing development.

Local governments are willing to provide incentives that developers are asking for, but many are advised not to do so for fear that those taxpayer-funded incentives will be lost in a court battle. HB 1017 supports both local business and the Colorado economy. We urge the General Assembly to support efforts to give local communities the home-grown tools to address this important problem of adequate, safe, decent and affordable housing.

• Housing Colorado
• Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman
• Thistle Communities
• Voices for Justice
• Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Colorado
• Joe Rowan, Executive Director, Funding Partners
• Ken Hoagland, President, Community Capital Corporation
• Sen. Betty Boyd (D- JeffCo)
• Rep. Daniel Kagan (D-Denver/Englewood)

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“One of the harder things for a legislator is to pull one of your own bills,” Rep. Ellen Roberts, D-Durango, writes in The Durango Herald. “But sometimes it’s necessary. Unfortunately, I had to kill one of mine recently, House Bill 1142, which had to do with setting up a statewide program intended to improve recruitment and retention of workers in the direct health-care profession, generally meaning certified nurse aides, or CNAs. The bill was an idea brought to me by a knowledgeable Durango constituent, Charlie Speno, who after many years of working in the field of care of the elderly and disabled, was made keenly aware of the work force challenges for nurse aide paraprofessionals.”

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