Fair Taxation and Sensible Democratic Solutions lead to budget surpluses in California

by: Zappatero

Sun Jan 13, 2013 at 17:19:14 PM MST

[A] series of tax cuts, combined with the ailing economy of the Bush years and the bursting of the tech bubble led to massive structural deficits in California in recent years.

But unlike other states, where the majority party in the state legislature can actually govern the state, California was different: it took a two-thirds supermajority of both houses of the legislature to pass just a budget, much less raise taxes.

This allowed an ever-increasing extreme band of Republicans, who controlled more than a third of at least one house during this time, despite their deepening unpopularity, to hold the state hostage seemingly every year until they got even more cuts to the social safety net.

These Republicans would even use their hostage-taking power to extract corporate tax cuts for big businesses, further deepening our fiscal nightmare.

(Sound familiar, anyone? - z)

Eventually, the progressive California electorate got tired of this. Even as a tea party wave swept the nation in 2010, California's Democrats increased their legislative majorities and swept all statewide offices. We passed a ballot measure ending the supermajority requirement to pass a budget.

And in 2012, after over 30 years of anti-tax orthodoxy dating back to the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, Californians voted to tax themselves to stop the crushing damage done to our schools by decades of low-tax neglect. Even better, redistricting reform has allowed Democrats to win even more seats, finally claiming a supermajority in the legislature and rendering the Republican Party structurally irrelevant in every meaningful way.

Pointless Post Editorial pines for Bipartisanship...and Unicorns

by: Zappatero

Sun Jan 13, 2013 at 13:18:23 PM MST

Curtis Hubbard voices his angst in today's Denver Post without making the plain and simple point that he could (well, if Dean Whatzizname weren't his boss). Curtis begins by quoting Governor John Hickenlooper:

"While Washington struggles with fiscal cliffs and partisan fights, Colorado demonstrates there is still room for compromise and moderation.".

There are 32 fresh faces in the 100-member legislature who may not remember it, but last year's session ended on an acrimonious note when the governor called a special session in hopes of forcing a vote on a civil unions bill essentially killed by Republicans in the waning hours of the 120-day General Assembly. In overtime, they killed it again.

Eight months later, Hickenlooper wants us to believe that politics in the statehouse is all unicorns and bunnies, where Democrats and Republicans walk hand-in-hand gazing at mountains and rainbows.

With Democrats back in control of both chambers this year, the civil unions bill is expected to be among the first signed into law. On Wednesday, every Democratic lawmaker had signed on as a sponsor. Contrast that to one Republican - Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen.

But Hickenlooper is the fulcrum on which bipartisanship must balance, and he must be at the halfway point, no matter that halfway between both sides has moved to halfway to Mars, for there to be bipartisanship and the guaranteed praise of Hubbard and the Post:

The governor is trying to play it somewhere close to the middle.

He may have to fend off fellow Democrats as he seeks to boost the state's reserves, confront legislation aimed at rewarding organized labor and support rules on oil and gas drilling that many in his party think are tilted in favor of the industry.

On the flip side, Republicans are likely to view with suspicion plans to expand Medicaid, stricter controls on guns and talk of tax increases for education.

"They're setting us up where the only option is to put a tax increase to the vote of the people," Waller said. "That's what's going to happen here."

It's not all Kumbaya in the Capitol.

Is there a reason it's "not all Kumbaya"? Hubbard pretends not to know.

Is raising taxes to invest in education a good policy? In Hubbard's world that's a tough question, even as Colorado's schools are mired in mediocrity.

Are Republicans and Democrats equally responsible for the inaction of government? Colorado's voters spoke clearly this November. Hubbard won't, or can't, say who has the more responsible policies and political capital to implement them.

He's too busy looking for unicorns......and bipartisanship.

Hubbard says he didn't block Sirota's tweets due to Harper's article

by: Jason Salzman

Mon Aug 27, 2012 at 10:22:24 AM MST

David Sirota‏@davidsirota

Following my @harpers piece, @DenverPost editor @CurtisHubbard blocked me on Twitter. Dear lord, that's friggin' hilarious.

David Sirota‏@davidsirota

Can't say I blame @curtishubbard - he knows Dean "Citizen Kane" Singleton signs his paycheck and is watching...

So I asked Hubbard if it was true, he wrote:

"No, it's not true.

I tried to unfollow him several months back. For some reason his tweets kept coming through, so I blocked him. My guess, and I'm not going to waste any time researching it, was that it was in the spring or early summer. It's nothing personal."

Denver Post opinion pieces: Left, Right, or Nonpartisan?

by: Jason Salzman

Thu Apr 26, 2012 at 12:30:18 PM MST

Hubbard presented the results of a bean-counting project conducted during the first quarter of 2012. He categorized editorials and columns on the Post's commentary pages as being left of center, right of center, or  "nonpartisan or centrist."

In his weekly column, Hubbard wrote that the majority of the opinion content was "nonpartisan or centrist" (43 percent of "local columns," 55 percent of editorials, and 54 percent of syndicated columns).

Partisan opinion content was found to be mostly left of center according to Hubbard's admittedly subjective count. Local columns were 32 percent left-of-center versus 25 percent right-of-center, editorials 26 percent versus 19 percent, and syndicated columnists 29 percent left-leaning versus 18 percent right-leaning.

Post Editorial Page Editor promises "Battleground" panels will be fair in the end

by: Jason Salzman

Thu Mar 01, 2012 at 12:52:54 PM MST

The Post's "Super Tuesday" panel, the second in election-season series that promises to be interesting, in part because of the different levels of interaction with the community, features the following folks, according to The Post:

Former state chair Dick Wadhams, Jessica Peck of Henley Public Affairs and Arapahoe County Commissioner Susan Beckman for Republicans; Former House Speaker Terrance Carroll and political strategist Leticia Martinez of Project New West for Democrats; analyst Eric Sondermann of SE2 communications; and special guests former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo and Colorado College professor Tom Cronin.

My progressive friends will hate me for it, but I'll accept Sondermann as a centrist here, as The Post defined him in its first panel Feb. 10. Cronin looks to be left-leaning. And Tancredo is way right, but overall a partisan Republican.

So what gives? Why create a panel with a 4-1-3 split in favor of the conservative agenda?

In response to that question, Post Editorial Page Editor Curtis Hubbard emailed me:

The Howard Beale Index?

by: Jason Salzman

Fri Feb 10, 2012 at 08:49:08 AM MST

Then, from the darker side of The Post, Editorial Page Editor Curtis Hubbard, wrote on The Post's Spot blog, that he has a "hunch" that FOX 31's Eli Stokols' strategy of calling Mitt Romney out for avoiding the press in Colorado will pay off. Hubbard wrote:

Eli throws a bomb: I don't know that I've ever seen a reporter publicly criticize a campaign for their media strategy/declining interview requests. Fox 31′s Eli Stokols didn't hold back in his criticism of the Romney camp today. Just a hunch, but I bet his strategy pays off.