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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-01-12

State of the State

Today, Governor Owens gave his eighth and final State of the State address (press version of the text here). Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the after-speech sit-down with other members of the RMA (Robert has some thoughts up about this already), but I was able to watch and read the speech.

In all, it seemed a bit subdued--not that SotS is a rock concert, but still relatively short on sparks. A couple lines jumped out at me:

Referendum C isn't an excuse to reverse any of that progress. It's an opportunity to make prudent investments in priorities--not to rebuild government bureaucracy. . . .

Let me remind you of the clear language contained in the title of Referendum C: "Without raising taxes, in order to pay for education, health care, roads, bridges and other strategic transportation projects . . . ."

. . .one-third of all foreign-born Colorado residents are here illegally . . .the ultimate solution lies at the national level. . . .

While it could be argued that advocating C & D was hardly the conservative position (as I did last Fall), I find it encouraging that the Governor is out front trying to guarantee a conservative approach to spending the moneys of Ref C. And while the Dems are pushing for spending almost entirely on education and health care, the Gov is out front pushing to rebuild some state infrastructure. Whether or not the Democratic legislature will let him accomplish that is another thing entirely.

I also find it interesting that he spent a pretty good chunk of the speech on the issue of immigration, which he acknowledged is a federal issue. Maybe starting to lay the groundwork for the state's federal candidates? Who knows.

Overall, pretty dry, and it seemed to receive a pretty dry reaction in the chamber. Not a surprise: Dems see him (and last sessions 47 vetoes) as the enemy, and some of the Republicans are smarting from his role in C & D last Fall.

Oh, and for the opposition view of the State of the State--not the speech, but the condition of Colorado--check out this. If I really believed this rhetoric, I'd be awfully depressed about my life. Fortunately, I don't believe them; and, by the way, let's be sure to rally around the Party of gloom and doom.
Posted by: Michael / 1/12/2006 11:57:00 PM

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