Response from candidate to Post editorial
Re: “Beauprez’s battle against Colorado,” May 9 editorial.
With all due respect to The Denver Post, I take exception to their equating my support for a ballot initiative with “battling against Colorado.” As a third-generation native of the state and a candidate for governor, I am committed to battling for Colorado, and that includes the hard-working taxpayers who foot the bills.
Last fall, voters were told that the state faced a budget crisis that required a five-year timeout from the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. They were told that the estimated surplus the state would be allowed to keep during that time was $3.7 billion – an amount they were also told would be enough to solve the budget crisis. While I personally opposed Referendum C, the voters had a different point of view and narrowly approved it. Almost immediately after the passage of C, estimates of the surplus began to rise. And as that surplus increased, the legislature spent it. And there is no reason to believe they will not continue to do so in each year of the timeout.
I am supporting an initiative that will give the voters an opportunity to clarify what they meant last November, not overturn their will. Did the voters intend to allow the state to keep the amount necessary to cover the “crisis” ($3.7 billion)? Or did they want the government to spend every single penny of surplus, no matter how high those surpluses reached, in each of the next five years? It’s clear to me that the Democrats in the legislature, as well as The Denver Post, think a five-year unlimited spending spree is what the voters agreed to. I disagree.
The Post contends that these rebates would “come directly from capital construction funds now allocated to Colorado highways and higher education needs.” This statement illustrates the fundamental difference in philosophy between conservatives and liberals – indeed, between Bob Beauprez and The Denver Post. I don’t see that money as belonging to the state; I see it as belonging to the taxpayers.
Fortunately, in Colorado, the people get to decide how much of their money the state can keep rather than the other way around.
U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, Arvada
Immigrants fighting for the U.S. military
Letter-writer Joseph Sninchak (May 7 Open Forum) wrote that this country belongs to the servicemen of World War II who fought and died for it, and said, “There is no illegal blood on the beaches of Normandy, or the South Pacific islands or in Italy.”
During the Vietnam war, at least, our Navy ships included many Filipinos who earned U.S. citizenship by serving in the Navy. Because we need more men and women to serve in our armed forces anyway, rather than pay exorbitant bonuses to lure volunteers as we do now, let us simply give the immigrants a choice: two years’ military service for the right to become a citizen, or immediate deportation. Such new citizens, who work hard to earn the right to belong here, will become some of our best citizens.
James W. Mulholland, Denver
Former music teacher
It was with great pride that I attended the closing session of the recent Opera America conference in Seattle. This annual conference hosts opera professionals and educators in a week-long meeting of panels and discussion groups. For the closing session, Opera America chose to honor Tresa Waggoner, an educator and singer, and former teacher from Bennett, who came under fire when she dared show a 30-year-old video of opera superstar Joan Sutherland and puppets telling the story of Gounod’s “Faust” in a firestorm of uninformed public hysteria. The conference attendants welcomed Waggoner warmly and after her brief remarks about her commitment to the musical education and enrichment of children gave her a standing ovation. Little consolation to a woman who was placed on leave and eventually left the school, thanks to the narrow-minded perception of an insular community, but Waggoner accepted the ovation graciously. Tresa Waggoner makes me proud to be a music educator.
Brian Clay Luedloff, Greeley
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