Amidst last week’s inaugural glamour for Gov. Bill Ritter, Colorado’s two other new statewide elected officials quietly made policy assurances that will serve Colorado well over the coming years.
Treasurer Cary Kennedy made an impressive debut in testimony before the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee Thursday, urging that the state’s reserve account – currently a pitiful 4 percent – be upped to at least 6 percent. Many other states have a reserve of 7 percent, Kennedy said.
We couldn’t agree more. One of the reasons the 2001-03 budget crisis bit so heavily into state programs is because the state’s rainy-day fund is so inadequate. Voter approval of Referendum C in 2005 created the opportunity to build a more adequate reserve – and that should be a top priority of this legislative session.
In his appearance before the budget panel, Secretary of State Mike Coffman – the state’s chief election officer – disavowed some highly partisan campaign-finance rules issued by his Republican predecessor, Gigi Dennis. Acting shortly before the hotly contested 2006 election, Dennis adopted a rule requested by GOP attorneys requiring such membership groups as labor unions to get annual written permission from their members to transfer dues to political committees. Her illegal ruling would have diminished fundraising efforts by Democrats, who receive the lion’s share of union contributions. (In September, a state appeals court said Dennis’ rule violated the free-speech rights of union members.)
Coffman Thursday told the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee that he personally supported such a policy but that it was up to the legislature to create it. Dennis overstepped her authority by trying to ban such contributions through rule-making, Coffman said, since rules are only made to implement state laws, not create them.
“I think they were partisan in nature,” he said of his predecessor’s late rulemaking, “and it’s my goal to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Well said. Dennis forfeited the reputation for independence she earned as a state senator by playing the role of a political hack with her partisan rulemaking.
