- Mobile Edition - Mobile EditionTax increases. Budget cuts. Those are the choices before the Colorado General Assembly this session, and to hear the spokespeople for the major political parties talk, they are clear choices indeed.
Republicans proclaim they want to pare away responsibly at bloated government programs, while Democrats want to raise taxes so they can keep spending like there is no tomorrow despite this recession they caused. Democrats claim they want to share the burden of essential government services as equitably as possible, while Republicans want to give tax breaks to the rich while starving people who have lost their livelihoods in the recession - which is, of course, the fault of the GOP.
A rising tide floats all boats, Republicans say. Too many people are marooned without boats, Democrats counter.
Despite the self-serving partisan rhetoric, inevitable during an election year, both sides do believe they have the right of it; at least they hope they do, based on their disparate views of how government should work for the common good.
Meanwhile, Coloradans who can see above the fray know there is a little more to the story. State legislators - as distinct from people who write news releases for the state Republican and Democratic parties - are wrestling not with ideological questions but with real numbers.
They are obligated constitutionally to balance the state budget. Although some innovative accounting techniques have allowed Colorado to “transfer" revenue and obligations from one year to another, few opportunities for that remain. The state will have to fund its operations with what it collects. Colorado residents appreciate that. They do not want to owe, collectively, more money than they even can imagine; they do not want the state to operate in the way the federal government does. There really is not much doubt Coloradans want to be fiscally responsible.
Further, most of them know what fiscal responsibility requires: more than a choice between cutting spending and raising taxes. When individuals, including private-sector business owners, cannot meet their budgets, they do not have the luxury of picking one ideological position over another and stubbornly sticking to it. Over the past 18 months, hundreds of thousands of Coloradans have cut everything they possibly can cut and done everything they possibly can to generate income. They understand how much those measures can hurt; they understand that doing as much of both as possible sometimes is not enough.
They have sense enough to see that taxing candy and soda is unpalatable but hardly draconian, while wincing over the idea that senior citizens will lose their homestead property-tax exemption. They understand that cutting business travel has one result and cutting public-health programs has a different result. They know that having some health insurance, even a policy that does not cover everything, is better than having none. They know that without jobs, it is hard for people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Coloradans are capable of making hard decisions without blaming the other guy. So are their legislators, if their political parties could concentrate on the challenges at hand, rather than the upcoming elections.
Yes, beyond the immediate effect of balancing the budget, cutting expenses has one result, and eliminating tax breaks has another. But neither one alone will be enough to solve the state's fiscal woes this year. Most Coloradans think it sure would be nice if all their legislators had all the possible tools at their disposal, rather than just half.