With the Democrats retaking the State House of Representatives, the time has come for them to name new committees, and new committee chairmen and vice chairmen. Most of the designees make sense, at least from an expertise point of view. While I may disagree vehemently with Max Tyler on energy issues, his district includes NREL, and he’s made a point of being vocal on things like wind and solar subsidies.
However, I draw the line at the appointment of Lois Court, my own State Representative, to be the Chairman of the House Finance Committee. Court has spent most of her time agitating for the elimination of the Electoral College, opposing Voter ID, and trying to limit citizens’ petition rights. So State, Veterans, and Military Affairs, where she’s served for four years as a member, would seem to be a natural fit for her interests. (Full disclosure: I ran against Mrs. Court in 2008 and 2010 for the House seat.)
Instead, incoming Speaker Mark Ferrandino appointed a state rep whose main contribution to finance discussions has been to sue her own constituents, to seek the repeal of the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights. She has historically found its spending and taxation limits to be antithetical to the idea of representative government. (Most of us see her opposition as a threat to the state’s solvency.) With the governor’s TBD Initiative coming up this year, it may signal an intention on the part of the Dems to wage war on TABOR more openly.
And then, there’s Representative Court’s fluency with arithmetic:
and
Hint: Carry the two. Three hundred twenty-five.
Ladies and Gentlemen, your new Finance Committee Chairman. The state’s in the very best of hands.
