Columnist Ewegen’s plan to change state gas tax
Re: “Sales tax on gas would boost roads, colleges,” Aug. 4 Bob Ewegen column.
I’ve been wondering how we were going to make up the lost revenue on gas taxes for road infrastructure repairs. The better mileage cars get, the higher prices get, the less people drive, the lower the revenue. I might actually back Bob Ewegen’s gasoline tax proposal – with one major proviso. He wants to earmark 10 percent of that tax increase for rapid transit. Wrong!
That silly choo-choo you people in the Denver metro area voted for, that fiscal disaster/bottomless money pit known as “light rail,” is your own idea, your own decision, and your own burden. Don’t expect the rest of the state to finance it for you. If it ever gets written into a ballot issue for the people to vote on, I’ll fight it tooth and nail unless the change is earmarked only for road maintenance and improvement. You pay for your own trains!
Bill Dietrick, Pueblo West
. . .
Bob Ewegen’s gas tax idea is so simple that I wonder why no one has come up with it before: Just raise taxes and all of our problems will be solved. It’s as easy as that. I can’t wait until Bill Ritter hears this one.
The only problem that I can see is how do you get the taxpayers to vote for it? Well, that might not be too big of a problem. They went for Referendum C and Amendment 23. How hard could it be?
Carl Harder, Arvada
Children’s health funding and the cigarette tax
The right hand and the left hand of Congress really do need to get together.
The right hand says: “Cigarette smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable disease. Studies show that increasing the cost of cigarettes decreases the incidence of smoking. So, increase the cigarette tax and decrease smoking/smoking related diseases.”
The left hand says: “We need to increase funding for the state children’s health insurance program by $50 billion to $75 billion over five years. We need money to do this. So, increase the cigarette tax 154 percent ($1 per pack) to pay for the program.”
Question: If smoking goes down as the cost goes up, who is going to end up paying the bill for SCHIP?
Jane E. Lupp, Lamar
Death of trout in warming waters of Yellowstone
Re: “Warm waters deadly to Yellowstone trout,” July 29 news story.
The recent fish kill in Yellowstone’s Firehole River highlights the stress that increasingly high stream temperatures are placing on trout throughout the West. Unfortunately, the risk to fish is likely to get worse. Even under the mildest of climate-change scenarios, many miles of historic trout habitat are expected to become marginal or uninhabitable to coldwater fish due to predicted changes in stream flow and water temperature.
In light of this anticipated warming of Western streams, it seems prudent that we should make every reasonable effort to minimize activities that exacerbate the thermal degradation of these irreplaceable waters. In January 2007, Colorado took meaningful strides toward this goal, as the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission adopted protective, science-based water temperature standards. However, significant threats to mountain stream temperatures remain in the form of massive water diversions that drain this cold lifeblood to taps, showers and lawns on the Front Range. Less flow yields warmer streams.
Just as anglers must show restraint to protect their quarry, we all must be responsible in how we use our most limited resource: water. While the changing weather may seem out of our control, we can aid our ailing mountain streams by reducing our thirst for their vital waters. Use only what you need, lest we forget the lessons of the Firehole River.
John Roach, Aquatics Specialist, Colorado Water Project, Trout Unlimited, Boulder
In defense of Jefferson County employee meeting
Re: “Jeffco suffers yet another black eye,” July 30 editorial.
As the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, we’d like to respond to your editorial in which you accused us of improperly holding an employee meeting and referred to Jefferson County as a “backwater.” The Denver Post did not have firsthand knowledge of the actual facts, yet opined nonetheless.
The Board of County Commissioners did not initiate or conduct the meeting in question. The county administrator coordinated a series of meetings to “inform” employees of decisions made previously by the board, in an open, posted meeting attended by the media, to discuss the resulting impacts of these decisions on employees.
It’s just plain decent human behavior to inform your employees about the impacts of these decisions that affect them before they read about them in the newspaper.
Notice of these meetings was sent to the county’s 3,000 employees, and one of your reporters attended one of them. The county administrator had no reason to assume that more than one commissioner would attend, as two were on vacation.
The editors and staff of The Denver Post did not contact any commissioner before writing this editorial. Had they given us that courtesy, we could have provided them with facts.
We believe in the utmost importance of the Colorado Open Meetings law and in open and transparent government. We encourage Jeffco citizens to contact us if they have any questions, and we hope in the future The Denver Post will call us for the facts rather than writing an opinion piece full of false information. Your readers deserve as much.
Jim Congrove, Chairman, Jefferson County Commissioners
Kathy Hartman, Jefferson County Commissioner
J. Kevin McCasky, Jefferson County Commissioner
Murder suspect’s defense
Re: “Murder suspect too adaptive for claim of low IQ to stick,” Aug. 3 David Harsanyi column.
I completely agree with David Harsanyi. Jose Luis Rubi-Nava is a cold, calculating and depraved human being. No ordinary person could do all that he has done without some intelligence – not even a 9-year-old. As the sister of two mentally retarded men, I am deeply affronted by the idea that this man would be considered a peer of theirs. Yes, there have been mentally retarded people who have committed crimes in the past, but the deliberateness and harshness of his crime go way beyond anything I have ever read about. Many of the truly mentally retarded who have committed crimes were led into them by other “normal” human beings or they were defending themselves or someone they loved. Rubi-Nava should not receive any special treatment – period.
Linda Graff, Evergreen
Congressional ethics
Re: “Ethics revamp headed to Bush,” Aug. 3 news story.
The headline on your article announces that the Democrat-controlled Congress is sending legislation to the White House for the president’s signature that “limits lobbying and pet projects.” This heading is immediately followed by a statement which reads, “Republicans say there are too many loopholes.” I find it fascinating that the Republicans, when they controlled Congress, did nothing to place limits on lobbying and pet projects. Yet, now that the Democrats have pushed through limiting legislation, the Republicans blame the Democrats for the fact that it doesn’t go far enough. It is because of disingenuous proclamations like this that so many, like myself, no longer trust what the Republicans say.
Tom Parsons, Broomfield
DIA vs. the snow
Re: “DIA on a mission to beat blizzards,” Aug. 2 news story.
DIA would be wise to save its money, as global warming will defeat these pesky blizzards. They might consider using that money to plant trees – which would save our planet.
Harold Summers, Aurora
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