Despite veto, Ritter supports bill

Bill Ritter did not veto House Bill 1072 because he disagreed with it. He vetoed it because of the process. That means he supports it and that means it’s coming back.

House Bill 1072 was an effort by union bosses to fundamentally shift labor law in Colorado in the direction of forced unionism, forced union dues and bringing the hammer against good employers in Colorado — the same employers that keep us employed and the economy moving.

Amendment 47 is necessary because it will ensure that labor peace comes back to Colorado. It will ensure that worker rights will be protected.

I applauded the editorial board when it opposed the union measures, which are no longer on the ballot. But I cannot agree with your opposition to Amendment 47 — a sensible measure in Colorado. Twenty-two states already have right to work. Why not Colorado? Vote “Yes” on Amendment 47.

CHARLES GREEN
Grand Junction

Bonds are needed because funding decreases

Each and every time the school district asks for increased property taxes to raise bonds, our voting population may be missing a vital fact about how the district is funded for capital projects. The city and county see increases in their respective budgets because revenues track upwards through collected taxes. The district doesn’t have that luxury in good years. It actually seems to some extent that we get penalized with the growth issues we are facing, either react quickly or receive criticism for not acting quickly enough.

The Public School Finance Act determines how much funding a district receives each year. The amount is based on the number of students counted on Oct. 1 of each year and other legislated factors. As a part of the act, the equalization factor limits revenue collected by local property taxes by decreasing the amount a district receives from the state of Colorado. In other words the state will always decrease the amount it sends back per student as we collect more locally. This makes it impossible to fund multimillion-dollar construction projects through the general fund budget.

Based on this reality, school districts in need of major capital investments must ask voters to raise their property taxes for selling bonds. There is really no other mechanism available to fund new schools. If there were, then conservatives like Josh Penry and Steve King would have helped find that solution. That is why we are asking for your support of ballot measures 3A and 3B, giving our children of District 51 room to learn.

C.E.”DUKE” WORTMANN
Grand Junction

Good schools create
economic growth

I am writing to encourage Mesa County Residents to support School District 51 bond initiatives 3A and 3B for a few reasons.

First, good schools and facilities are engines of economic growth. The first question any home buyer asks is how are the schools in this neighborhood and town. Business owners looking to open a new location or relocate to our community ask the same question.
The Grand Junction Economic Partnership is focusing their next five-year plan on knowledge-driven businesses. These businesses will require a strong school system be in place before they invest in our community. Also a vast majority of the approximately $180 million to be raised will be spent in Mesa County employing our residents and supporting our local businesses.

Second, the school district has been exceptionally efficient spending the money raised in the last two capital bond initiatives. My business allows me to see the general contractor and subcontractor bids the school district receives for the schools and the projects have been built with extremely competitive prices during the last two bond initiatives. Ask any of the contractors who worked on these projects and they will confirm the school district received excellent pricing for these projects.

This has been good for the taxpayers, as the money raised has been put into the facilities as advertised. School District 51 was even able to build an additional school this last bond cycle due to cost efficiencies during the construction of the planned schools.
Third, a strong, healthy community takes responsibility for the health and performance of their schools and students. Let’s show the health of our community and the pride we have in our students and teachers and support them and our community by voting in favor of 3A and 3B.

JAMIE LUMMIS, President
Moody-Valley Insurance Agency
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 6:18 am and is filed under Printed letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.