A sampling of recent editorials from Colorado newspapers:
NATIONAL:
The Denver Post, Aug. 23, on preventing swine flu:
Children are heading back to school to trade summertime stories—and something far less pleasant: germs.
With swine flu circulating and a vaccine not available until October—and even then, only a reduced number of doses will be ready—it’s vitally important for kids, parents and schools to take precautions to keep this virus at bay.
While swine flu doesn’t, at this point, appear to be particularly dangerous to the overall population, certain people are more at risk. Those who have underlying conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease and other chronic conditions, appear to be more vulnerable.
Children also are among those most susceptible to swine flu, or H1N1. They need to wash their hands, often and properly, which means using soap and lathering for 20 seconds. It’s the most effective way to keep everyone well.
Parents must keep kids home from school and day care when they’re sick. It will be inconvenient, but it’s especially important this year.
The single biggest reason parents knowingly schlep their sick children off to school juiced up on Motrin is because they’re worried about missing work. We hope employers are particularly sensitive to the overall public health benefit of allowing parents time to be at home with their sick children. In addition, schools need to be aggressive about sending kids to the nurse, and calling parents when those students are ill. Schools also should have systems to track incidences of flu-like symptoms to try to stop the spread of flu.
Quick action could make the difference between a few cases and most of school coming down with it.
It’s particularly important because this flu, and yes, it’s just a flu, is dangerous for children. The Centers for Disease Control has recommended vaccinations for those between the ages of 6 months and 24 years.
However, only a third of the 120 million expected swine flu doses will be ready by mid-October. That means the groups that go to the head of the vaccination list are children younger than 4, public health workers and pregnant women.
The swine flu is particularly treacherous for pregnant women, who have an unusually high rate of complications from the illness.
If you or your child is ill, please think of others. Though no one in your family may be carrying a child, women with school-age children are the right demographic to be pregnant. If you keep your sick child home, you may prevent a pregnant woman from getting the illness.
About 55 million children will be hoisting on backpacks and heading off to school in the next few weeks. It’s an exciting time of the year.
We hope that people have the presence of mind to also keep it as healthy a time of year as possible.
Editorial:
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Daily Sentinel, Grand Junction, Colo., Aug. 21, on the ‘Yes, but’ economy:
The U.S. and world economies are on the verge of recovery, following the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. So said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a meeting in Jackson, Wyo., recently.
We’re as eager as most people to embrace the recovery that Bernanke predicts. We just wish there weren’t so many, “Yes, but …” caveats.
—”The prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good,” Bernanke said.
Yes, but he also said, “Although we have avoided the worst, difficult challenges still lie ahead.”
—Existing home sales rose for the fourth straight month in July.
Yes, but the vast majority of those sales were distressed sales, homes in foreclosure or where the owners are behind in payments, according to The Wall Street Journal.
—Industrial output in this country rose in July, the first time since October of last year.
Yes, but U.S. consumers remain wary. They’re hoarding their cash rather than spending it, and that has led to a dip in retail sales.
—The national unemployment rate fell in July, the first time since April, 2008.
Yes, but new jobless claims rose more than expected last week and the unemployment rate is still expected to top 10 percent nationally later this year.
Overall, there are numerous conflicting economic messages. There’s plenty of data to encourage the glass-half-full types. But there is nearly as much for the glass-half-empty pessimists.
Yes, but the trends are in the right direction. That’s far better than the end of last year and the beginning of this one, when virtually all of the news was bad.
Editorial:
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STATE/REGIONAL:
Camera, Boulder, Colo., Aug. 23, by Erika Stutzman, for the editorial board, on lowering the state’s minimum wage:
Colorado could earn the distinction of being the first state ever to lower the minimum wage.
Under the Colorado Constitution, the state’s minimum wage is adjusted annually for inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. The measure was intended to help bolster pay here if inflation were to soar.
Instead, the economy is in the tank—and fuel prices have fallen—which means our lowest paid workers may bring home even less next year
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour for most workers—people who are tipped as part of their compensation can make a lower wage. Colorado’s has been $7.28 since January. Next year, it could go as low as the federal minimum, a 3-cent per hour drop.
State labor officials are expected to make the decision next month, marking the first decrease in the minimum wage in the country since the first federal law was passed in 1938. Colorado is one of 10 states where the minimum wage is tied to inflation. Most use it to raise the rate, but don’t have provisions for lowering it. Some, like Florida, can’t lower their current lowest wages to match the lower cost of living without going below the federal minimum.
An estimate released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Colorado’s cost of living fell 0.6 percent from July 2008 to July 2009. Between 50,000 to 70,000 Coloradans make the minimum wage, many of them cobbling together two or more jobs in order to make ends meet.
Some who favor the drop say employers can hire more people when wages fall, which could benefit those in low-wage industries.
We have seen the opposite in this economic climate: Private wage and salaries in the United States decreased $28.6 billion in June, following an $11.3 billion drop in May. But unemployment continues to grow, with some analysts foreseeing a 10 percent national rate next year. The unemployment rate in Colorado now is a seasonally adjusted 7.8 percent, compared with 9.4 percent nationwide. The national average in 2008 was 5.8 percent.
Employers, so far, are not taking savings from wages and turning them into new jobs. They are using it to offset their own losses and their own soaring costs—especially health care.
There’s no reason to think that a drop in pay to the lowest paid Coloradans would help our economy, and every reason to think it would hurt those who need it most.
When the rate lowers here, and we expect it will, we urge employers to continue paying their lowest-paid workers the current wage.
Editorial:
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The Durango Herald, Aug. 23, on Gov. Bill Ritter’s budget:
On Aug. 18, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter announced $320 million worth of cuts to the state’s budget. The cuts apply to fiscal year 2010, which began July 1. Most will take effect Sept. 1, although some require legislative approval in 2010.
It is a painful affair Ritter clearly took seriously. That can be seen in the fact the governor did not spare programs that best reflect his personal values—nor did he shy away from political risk. With this plan, Bill Ritter put his future on the line.
The cuts announced last week come on top of the $1.45 billion the Legislature already has cut from the state budget in the last two years. Still, with the help of Amendment 23, Ritter was able to avoid cuts to education. He also preserved tax breaks he says are important to business and protected programs, such as tuition assistance for National Guard members, and services for seniors like Meals on Wheels.
Nonetheless, faced with both reduced revenues and a constitutional requirement to balance the budget, Ritter had to slash spending. And that never is pleasant.
In deciding where to cut, Ritter tried to protect the social safety net. Even so, health and human services will be affected. More than 260 state jobs will be eliminated, with most of those lost coming from the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which administers Medicaid and welfare programs—typically things near and dear to a Democrat.
In all, his cuts affect more than 100 budgetary line-items and lower state spending by 9 percent from last year. State workers will have four unpaid furlough days and the hiring freeze will continue.
But where Ritter stuck his neck out is in his plan to let 2,600 criminals take an early release from prison or have their supervised parole time reduced. And in that, Ritter can be said to be caught between two criminals.
Willie Sutton was a mid-20th century bank robber who, when asked why he robbed banks, famously answered that that was where the money was. And by, in the governor’s words, “accelerating the transition from parole to community” for some nonviolent criminals already nearing their release date, Ritter can save $20 million.
But there also was Willy Horton, a violent criminal who was serving a life sentence for murder when he was released from a Massachusetts prison on a weekend furlough during the tenure of then-Gov. Michael Dukakis. Horton fled to Maryland where he committed assault, armed robbery and rape.
And when the Democrat Dukakis ran for president, Republican strategist Lee Atwater all but hung Horton around his neck. Ritter has to know that if one of the criminals freed under his plan does something like Horton, there are Republicans ready to remind Colorado voters of that over and over until the November election next year.
Nonetheless, Ritter did the right thing. Prison costs are out of hand and will have to be addressed at some point. Why not when the state most desperately needs the money? And who but Ritter, with 25 years experience as a criminal prosecutor, is best equipped to craft a way to do so? Sex offenders, murderers and kidnappers will not be eligible. Candidates for early release more likely will be nonviolent offenders such as drug dealers. And every case will be looked at and decided by the parole board.
But for Ritter, the political risk remains. And it says something about the man that he would accept that before more cuts that he believes would hurt the people of Colorado.
Next year will be worse. Without federal stimulus money to backfill Colorado’s coffers somewhat, and with lower property tax receipts squeezing K-12, the state will be looking beyond cuts to existing programs to real structural changes.
But that is for later. For now, Ritter did well with what he had to work with.
Editorial:
