It took another conservative state senator from Colorado Springs to finally get it right: “I just don’t think this is an appropriate place to be cutting K-12 education,” Sen. Keith King said. And just like that, a Senate committee restored funding to the Start Smart Nutrition Program, which makes breakfast free for children who would otherwise have to pay a reduced price of 30 cents.
“We had the money,” said King, a principal at a charter school. “We have some kids that needed that program.”
The full Senate on Friday approved giving $124,229 in supplemental funding to the program, ensuring it stays afloat through June. Earlier, the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee rejected approving additional money for the program on a 3-3 partisan split. The GOP’s move was bad from a policy standpoint, but was equally bad, politically. We understand the need to cut the state budget, but that’s not the place to start and we’re glad lawmakers have restored the funding.
Maybe the bill got lost in the mail. Before you could even lick a postage stamp, the bill to make Colorado an all-mail-ballot state simply evaporated. Proponents yanked the bill before it could be killed in committee. Supporters need to spend some time allaying the fears of the far left, which worries that mail ballots will disenfranchise more mobile voters, such as college kids, and the far right, which is worried about rampant fraud. Some 70 percent of Coloradans already prefer to vote this way, and given how cash-strapped county government is these days, we thought the bipartisan effort was a good-government measure. It allowed for limited on-site voting for traditionalists, and given today’s technology, we think the chance for fraud continues to diminish.
Looking for new blood. Now that Colorado Public Utilities Commission chairman Ron Binz has announced he won’t seek reappointment, all eyes turn to Gov. John Hickenlooper, who will pick Binz’s successor. The new governor ought to look for a commissioner who is sensitive to environmental goals but also will make the interest of consumers paramount.
And a tip of our cap to . . . Jake Schroeder, the Opie Gone Bad frontman who reminds us each time that he sings the national anthem at Avalanche games that he’s no Christina Aguilera.
Short Takes is compiled by Denver Post editorial writers and expresses the view of the newspaper’s editorial board.
