On The Issues
Colorado Workers and Economy
1
This year, Colorado raised the state minimum wage to $12/per hour. However, no more than $3.02/per hour in tip income may be used to offset the minimum wage of tipped employees. Do you support or oppose action changing how tip income is treated for minimum wage purposes and why?
Support
Comment: Tips should not be part of minimum wage, nor should they be taxed as income. They are gift rewards for good service. I would support removing tips from income for purposes of taxation and replacing a tipped-position wage with the regular minimum wage, while not banning tips.
2
A 2018 NPR/Marist poll revealed 20 percent of all American workers are contract workers hired to work on a specific project or for a fixed period of time. Do you support or oppose action that would provide gig economy workers access in Colorado to unemployment benefits, workers compensation, etc., and why? Oppose
Comment: A look at what is happening in California shows why trying to treat gig economy workers as standard employees doesn't work. As independent contractors they have the flexibility they desire, and the choice to be eligible for those state benefits or not. It's not broken, so don't try to fix it until it is.
3
This summer, Governor Polis signed into law a bill that prevents an employer from discriminating, retaliating, or taking adverse action against any worker who raises a concern about workplace health and safety practices or hazards related to a public health emergency. Do you support or oppose enacting similar legislation to protect whistleblowers who sound the alarm about waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, or dangers to public health and safety from employer retaliation? Support
Comment: Caveat: it needs to be a legitimate issue, or else the protection should cease. In other words, the protection should not be used as a revenge tool by a disgruntled employee.
Revenue/Taxes
4
The coronavirus pandemic has upended state budgets across the country, including Colorado’s. Do you support or oppose efforts to decouple state taxes from federal taxes and change how Colorado taxes corporations to responsibly raise revenue and why?Oppose
Comment: It's smarter to cut state spending to match the revenue drop, and that revenue drop is solely the fault of Governor Polis for his terrible response to COVID-19 in picking economic winners and losers when he doesn't have an economic clue.
5
The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) prohibits Colorado from raising taxes without voters’ consent. TABOR also prohibits Colorado from establishing a rainy day fund to weather tough economic times. Colorado’s spending on essential services like education and transportation has lagged behind the state’s economic and population growth. Colorado ranks 47th in the nation in per pupil spending. The state also currently lacks funds to enforce labor and other laws in any meaningful way. Do you support or oppose efforts to revise or get rid of TABOR and why? Oppose
Comment: TABOR is not and never has been the problem. It's OUR money, after all. No, the problem is a legislature that spends tax money like drunken fools, completely irresponsibly trying to be everything for everyone instead of staying on the basics of infrastructure, justice, and individual freedom. You fix that by eliminating the accounting gimmicks like fee-based enterprises, base-plus accounting, and disentangle layers and levels of governments. Also, the 47th number is false. Per multiple sources, it's 40th, but one must also remember that dollars per pupil spent does not necessarily equate to higher academic achievement. Quality of dollars spent is more important than quantity.
Quality and Affordable Healthcare
6
This year, lawmakers introduced legislation to create a public health insurance option for our state. Do you support or oppose creating a public option in Colorado and why? Oppose
Comment: This is the state government trying (and failing) to be everything to everyone. Under ACA, the state exchanges saw a doubling of premiums and a tripling of deductibles before coverage at 50% was hit. Why should a family throw tens of thousands of their hard-earned dollars down that hole for substandard health care from the state? Yet that's what a state health care system, which can dictate treatments to you, would do. It can be done much better than that, and without government interference.
7
One 2018 survey of Colorado adults found that more than half (53%) reported being either “worried” or “very worried” about affording the cost of prescription drugs. Do you support or oppose policies that would make prescription drugs more affordable and why? Oppose
Comment: The high cost of prescription drugs has everything to do with the federal government and its regulations of that market, in its corrupt relationship between Big Pharma and the FDA. If the state seeks to offset that, all taxpayers pay the difference. Instead, it should be the responsibility of each individual to get their own medications, which may not necessarily be a pharmaceutical drug, for how they can afford it. Health responsibility begins with the individual.
Keep Communities Safe during the COVID-19 Pandemic
8
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some states and localities rushed to grant businesses immunity from civil lawsuits related to the coronavirus. Do you think businesses should be shielded from lawsuits related to COVID-19? Support
Comment: Yes, but only because the government response, the panic-demic, was so egregiously wrong. Had the government response not been to shut down everything for no good reason, and instead followed a containment model like the flu, as was done in South Dakota, Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan, and Japan, then businesses would be in a different position and such immunity wouldn't be necessary. But it is necessary because government got it wrong and put the businesses into a position of need for it.
Voting Access and Constitutional Reform
9
Do you think Colorado should take additional action to protect low-income and voters of color access to vote? Oppose
Comment: What access is not there? I have voted consistently since 1993 regardless of income level, from unemployed on up, without any problems. Racial voting problems? Never seen it.
10
In past years, legislators have introduced legislation calling for an Article V constitutional convention to address a number of reforms. Do you support or oppose legislation calling for an Article V constitutional convention? Support
Comment:
11
This year, lawmakers introduced legislation that would place for the first time campaign contribution limits on school board candidates. Do you support or oppose this legislation and why? Support
Comment: School boards have the power of the purse, and as such, great power over their districts, and that makes them susceptible to campaign payoffs for what are essentially unpaid positions. The limit should be capped at $0. When I ran for school board in 2001, I spent all of $50. Campaign limits should be capped at the annual salary of the position being sought.
