Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has proposed a significant structural change to the city budget that we think is smart policy and would help reduce costs over the long haul. The idea is to reform the city’s retirement plan by trimming benefits and raising the minimum age at which future employees can retire from 55 to 60.
The change would not affect existing workers, and that’s proper. Rather, it would replace the existing plan for new hires. His plan would further decrease the pensions of those who retire early and increase the time required for vesting from five years to seven years. Yes, that means the cost savings are decades away. But at some point, the city’s retirement policy needs to reflect the fact that most Americans live longer and more productive lives.
Instituting the change now helps ensure a stronger Denver into the future.
There goes the Wyoming vote. If a candidate talks enough on the stump, eventually he’ll step in it. (See Ken Buck on last Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”) But it was video of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper from 2009 that had political tongues wagging on Friday. When asked why the Matthew Shepard Foundation might be located in Denver instead of Wyoming, the mayor said: “. . . Colorado and Wyoming are very similar, we have some of the same, you know, backwards thinking in the kind of rural Western areas you see in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico . . . .” Ouch. That noise you heard was rural Coloradans uprooting their Hickenlooper signs.
Maybe he’ll be forgiven if he promises not to wear any more cowboy outfits in his TV ads.
Just keep it from the neck up, Enrique. Enrique Chagoya, the artist who brought us the controversial piece of religious art in a Loveland museum, is hard at work on another piece of art for a Colorado church. He is painting the face of Christ, a piece for the Resurrection Fellowship church in Loveland. One of Chagoya’s prints, “The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals,” caused an uproar in Loveland. Some said it depicted Jesus engaged in a sex act. A Montana woman was arrested earlier this month for destroying it. After the ruckus, a Loveland pastor contacted Chagoya and asked him to consider another religious piece, this one “representing love and understanding.” According to 7News, Chagoya responded: “I will do my most loving picture of Jesus I could possibly make.” We hope he’ll do everyone a favor and just keep it from the neck up.
Short Takes is compiled by Denver Post editorial writers and expresses the view of the newspaper’s editorial board.
