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We are really blessed in the natural beauty Colorado has. Where ever I travel, when I am asked where I am from, I quickly and proudly respond, “I’m from Colorado, the best state in the country.” I truly love Colorado. After saying this, I proudly tell people all the reasons why I think Colorado is the best state in the union. I always begin with Colorado’s people. Coloradans are a kind and generous people. We’re hard working people who care about playing hard too. Of course, I always tell people how truly beautiful Colorado is. Although I think we could all share stories about what Colorado means to each of us, why we love Colorado and why we make Colorado our home, if the truth be know, even the Colorado we all love so much, even our Colorado could stand some improving. Take healthcare, did you know our great state is ranked 33rd in Infant Mortality? Or that we rank 21st in the number of Doctors per 100,000 residents? Or that we rank 34th in our mental health depression status. We can and we must do better. Take education, did you know that Colorado is ranked the 27th Smartest state? Ranked 27th in how smart our fellow-citizens are? We were ranked 24th but we were passed up in 2006-07 by North Carolina, Texas, Indiana, and Idaho. Can you imagine that, being passed up by Texas? I do not know about you but I am not ready to accept that the average Texan is smarter than the average Coloradan. Say it isn’t so. We can and we must do better. Education is the key to success. Other cultures value and honor the role of teachers. In the US, however, our teachers have to fight for safe work environments and a living wage. In Colorado our public school teachers’ average salary ranks 21st in the nation. Sounds good but when you consider the cost of living in Colorado you realize why our teachers are struggling. We live in a global economy. Our children must be prepared for the world they face today and the world the will be facing tomorrow. The competition for quality jobs requires a quality education. Our kids need to be ready to compete for the high skilled jobs of tomorrow not only with California and Texas but also with India and China. Teachers are key to our kids success and yet we make them fight for a living wage. We can and we must do better. Did you know that Colorado is ranked 24th in violent crime? You know when I think of Colorado, I do not think of violent crime but our state has more crime than half the other states in the country. Unacceptable! We can and we must do better. How about the economy? Coloradans are nervous. Prices are going up. Gas prices are causing us to curtail our activities. Healthcare inflation seems to be growing even faster. Foreclosures are hurting whole neighborhoods and everyone is wondering where the bottom is at. For many Coloradans, however, this is not new. In 2005 when the economy was much stronger, eleven percent of Coloradans lived in poverty. Our state ranked 35th in the number of people living in poverty. We can and we must do better than that. Let’s talk taxes. We Coloradans certainly pay our fair share in terms of taxes. When you include all the ways we are taxed by the state of Colorado, we rank 30th in State Tax Burden, 32nd in property taxes as a % of income. When you add the federal taxes, our combined federal/state tax burden is ranked 23rd in the nation. And what are we getting for all those taxes? I like many Americans understand taxes are a fact of life but what about our return on our investment. For example, what happens with the taxes we pay to the federal government? Did you know in terms of dollars coming back to Colorado from Uncle Sam in the form of aid to state and local governments, Colorado gets back $1,001 per person per year. That’s right, for all the money we pay to our federal government, we get back $1,001 per person. Sadly, in this statistic, our state ranks 48th. Only Nevada and Virginia rank lower than Colorado in the per capita aid to state and local governments. When I’m elected, I will work with our congressional representatives to turn this situation around. We have too many needs, too many federal mandated responsibilities for us to not get more of our federal tax dollars returned back to Colorado. I believe to that Colorado should be on the cutting edge on citizen services. I am not like many of our Republican friends who believe that somehow government is inherently inept and incompetent. Did you ever notice how good those Republicans who believe government is incompetent are at showing you just how incompetent they are governing? I believe government can and must provide services that the private sector either can’t or won’t provide. I also believe in a lean, tight government where if we decide something is worth doing, we insist it that it be done well, as efficiently as possible, and that citizen satisfaction be the measure of success. As you Senator, I will provide the leadership to embrace innovation to improve government services and bring down the total cost of government. This is key; we can improve services while at the same time reduce the overall cost of government. We can then take the savings from innovation to improve other citizen services and for targeted tax cuts to bring some tax relief to our middle class citizens and small businesses. My background in developing solutions for business and government provides me with a unique perspective to bring to the State Senate and the issues we all face. To view my position on specific issues, please click on the applicable link below or to the left. |
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