peter blake
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Amendment 72: The flawed fiscal logic behind raising tobacco taxes
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Sure, why not triple the state cigarette tax, as Amendment 72 on the Colorado ballot proposes? It’s no bucks out of my billfold, and look who’s for it: Every goodthink organization you can think of, from the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado right…
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Blake: Single-subject rule is too limiting
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It’s a good thing the Founding Fathers didn’t have to run the First Amendment by the Colorado Supreme Court before sending it out to the states for ratification. Our justices would have rejected it on grounds it violates the single-subject rule. Does it ever. The amendment, a single 45-word sentence, contains not one, not two,…
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Blake: On the initiatives, just say ‘no’
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I love the initiative process in theory. Power to the people! In practice, not so much. At least this year. Like a pianist playing scales, I used to warm up for my biennial ballot concerto by quickly flipping the “no” lever on all the judges up for retention. It not only flexed the fingers, it…
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Blake: Bending over backwards for the unaffiliated voter
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The group that would make it even easier for unaffiliated voters to participate in Colorado’s primary elections is circulating two different initiatives – an unusual move. One, currently called No. 98, would open the current primary – held on the last Tuesday in June – to all unaffiliated voters; the other, No. 140, would restore…
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Blake: Attorney General Coffman’s greatest ally is 2003-era Ken Salazar
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Former Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar is no fan of current AG Cynthia Coffman’s participation in a multi-state suit against President Obama’s “Clean Power Plan.” The suit is “out of step with the role and responsibilities of an attorney general,” Salazar told The Denver Post. But what Salazar did as AG a dozen years ago,…
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Blake: Revenue took my $1, and I WANT IT BACK!
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If I’d just let my passions run higher, and paid more attention to the deadline, I might have gotten my full tax refund back from the state of Colorado. My problem is, I’m slow to anger, an all too passive citizen who accepts the abuse of the state. I’m too willing to abandon principle for…
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Blake: Sabotaging TABOR comes down to a single subject
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When it comes to sabotaging TABOR, term limits and the initiative process, the usual suspects tend to round themselves up. The latest group, called “Building a Better Colorado,” is fronted by the otherwise estimable Dan Ritchie, who served 15 years as chancellor of the University of Denver, taking no pay and donating his $50 million…
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Blake: Aurora drops ‘TIF’ over Gaylord project
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You mean large private developments can be done without huge public subsidies like tax increment financing? Even Aurora city officials have apparently come to that conclusion. The administration has had a road-to-Damascus conversion and unexpectedly abandoned its effort to push through a tax-increment financing plan for the $850 million Gaylord Rockies Hotel and Convention Center,…
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Blake: How long before Bustang is put out to pasture?
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Privatize the profits, socialize the losses. That’s what the Colorado Department of Transportation does with Bustang, the new state-owned intercity bus operation. Bustang began operating July 13 with routes from downtown Denver north to Fort Collins, south to Colorado Springs and west to Glenwood Springs. The profits go to Ace Express Coaches, which operates the…
