In ancient Greece, the Oracle of Delphi was perhaps the most important shrine. Ask the priestess there what the future held (while sweetening your request with a few coins), and she would readily supply an answer in the name of Apollo.
There was one catch, though: Her answers often were vague and cryptic, and sometimes even misleading. You could be scratching your head for weeks trying to figure one out.
On the matter of fiscal policy, Gov. John Hickenlooper this week has followed the oracle’s lead, resorting to delphic language that is all but impossible to interpret.
Twice in three days, Hickenlooper made reference to budget challenges facing the state in the near future, decried the mandates that limit the state’s options, and then trailed off with vague and cryptic expressions of how Coloradans should proceed.
for example, the governor noted, “Under TABOR, rebates are required even as we see legitimate needs all over the state going unmet. Amendment 23 demands more new money than we can possibly expect to have two years from now.
“If we do nothing, if we pretend the future will take care of itself, and we’re back here in two years facing what was clearly an avoidable crisis, history will show that we failed future generations of Coloradans.”
Now that sounds like a powerful run-up to a clarion proposal. In fact, it was followed by a nod to the “legitimate debate” over the size of government and a suggestion that we come together, “dealing with the facts as we know them, and take a hard look at the most strategic way to allocate resources,” and so on.
Only the oracle knows what he really would like to do.
In his inaugural on Tuesday, the governor similarly noted that “chief among the challenges we know is our budget, a financial thicket. Our state constitution mandates that we increase our expenditures and simultaneously cut taxes. If that does not sound like it makes much sense, that’s because it doesn’t. Nothing can grow and shrink at the same time.”
And the oracle’s advice?
“As we work to resolve this inherent conflict,” he advised, “we must constantly ask ourselves: What exactly are we proposing to build?”
Who could argue?
On the other hand, if a budgetary crisis is truly just two years away, as the governor insists, shouldn’t he be dropping a few more clues as to what he thinks ought to be done?
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