Conservative = Common Sense

new

2011-03-31T11:56:00.001-07:00

Please go to debbiebuckley.com for more info

My Tea Party Speech Excerpts

2009-04-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Mainstream media is saying that only right wing radicals will be here, but I see a cross section of main Street America.
This is not a Republican or Democrat Issue. – This is an American Issue.
All over the Country today people from many walks of life are saying - Enough is enough.
Stop out if control spending – We can’t work fast enough to support our Government's spending habits.
Seniors who are living on a fixed income need their money for other rising expenses like heating bills and grocery bills.
Huge tax burdens are being passed along to our children. They will be deprived of the opportunity to pursue the American Dream.
All individuals should have the right to pursue their livelihood in their own way, free from excessive government regulation and government-subsidized competition, which they like to call bailouts.
FREEDOM is the real issue.
The government’s appetite for property tax dollars will keep growing until we the people speak up and demand that our elected officials listen.
We the people are tired of politicians spending money on their own pet projects and not respecting the will of the people.
Elected officials work for us. They seem to forget that once they get to Washington DC or Denver.

The Washington DC view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And, if it stops moving, bail it out.
Americans are currently slaving away 3.5 months, or 28.2% of each year to satisfy the governments appetite for taxes.
How many months of the year will the next generation have to be a slave to government spending?
They are robbing us of our freedom to spend our money on our own families. And they are robbing the next generation.
It is time to put the elected officials who are supposed to be serving us on a diet.
It is time to give the power back to the people.

Green Common Sense

2009-03-28T06:48:00.000-07:00

Sustainable development and sustainable community are the new buzzwords being used by our government. Sustainability is more than Green building and Green jobs because it must encompass the environmental considerations along with economic and social considerations. Sustainability is defined as a development or community that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The idea behind the buzzword is to preserve the world for the future. In theory sustainability should be a common sense, balanced approach to development and the environment.

Taking care of our environment, locally or globally just makes sense, and does not have to be over complicated. There are some easy common sense ways to use less fuel and also save money on your heating bills. For example, seal up leaky drafts around doors and windows with weather-stripping. It’s not hard to do yourself and it does not cost a lot of money. Keep your drapes closed at night to help insulate your house. On sunny days, open up the drapes and blinds to let in the sun’s free heat. Shut off the lights when no one's in the room. These are all examples of common sense solutions that my parents and grandparents used to keep their fuel bills lower. I doubt that they used the term “carbon footprint”, but the energy saving results helped the environment and my family’s economy.

Do we really need to waste our money on “studies” and grand plans to be sustainable? No amount of money wasted on studies will make the common sense choices easier. In the end it is about finding a balance between caring for people and caring for the planet.

On an individual level, we have to make choices too. How important is the concept of sustainability to us as a community? Sustainability sounds very desirable when we hear our government talk about it. But are we willing to make our own difficult choices? Are you willing to pay more for your housing (buying or renting) if it means using less energy? What if that means getting a second job? Are you willing to use public transportation instead of your Land Rover? How about some easier choices like making that extra trip to the curb with your recycling when it is below zero?

The point is that a truly sustainable community starts with all of us taking individual responsibility for our environment and each other. We should not leave all the sustainable community choices to the politicians who go to Green meetings in their private jets. I do not want the government to limit my personal freedom of choice by forcing me into the government’s idea of a sustainable community. Nor should we give up our personal freedom to come up with more creative solutions.

Sustainable solutions that really work will come from individuals and business. The reason for this is that sustainable choices make economic sense in the long run. It time to focus on the balanced common sense solutions that benefit the community and the environment. We need to give people freedom to come up with creative sustainable solutions instead of just doing what the politicians tell them to do. We will also save some tax dollars that are being wasted on “studies.”

There is an old adage that should be tied to the word sustainability – “Waste not, Want not”. This type of consumer frugality has gone out of style in our more affluent society. Maybe it’s time to bring it back.

Michael Steele

2009-03-13T11:41:00.001-07:00

Here is a copy of Mike Huckabee’s blog and his update on Steele.
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An Update on the Michael Steele Situation
I have spoken this afternoon to Chairman Michael Steele and have received clarification from him as to his comments regarding the sanctity of life issue. I appreciate his candor and most of all his willingness to personally discuss this with me.

Michael affirms his pro-life commitment, including support for the party platform of a Constitutional amendment to protect life and his conviction that life begins at conception. The point he sought to make was that words like “choice” and “individual decisions” have been co-opted by the left, when in fact his mother made a choice as an individual—the CHOICE to give birth to him as an unmarried college student. It would have been easy for her to have made a choice to end his life, but she chose life.

Obviously, this is an issue which is very important to me and to many other conservatives and it was important for me to get this clarified. I’m grateful that Chairman Steele was willing to set the record straight without hesitation.
Mike Huckabee
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My take on this:

As a politician I have been misquoted by the press on many occasions. Michael Steele has a record of being prolife and I will continue to support him until I have a reason to believe he is not pro life. I supported Michael Steele because of his Conservative values.

I will be going to hear him in Denver on March 20th and will let you know if he addresses this issue or is I have any reason to believe he is wavering on this issue.

Republicans who voted Yes for Earmark Bill Today

2009-03-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

Alabama
Shelby (R) Yes
Alaska
Murkowski (R) Yes
Maine
Snowe (R) Yes
Mississippi
Cochran (R) Yes
Wicker (R) Yes
Missouri
Bond (R) Yes
Pennsylvania
Specter (R) Yes
Tennessee
Alexander (R) Yes

GINGRICH: Where does the conservative movement go from here?

2009-02-11T06:16:00.001-08:00

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The conservative movement has a simple and almost certainly successful future if it does three things:

1. Advocate first principles with courage, clarity, persistence and cheerfulness.

2. Insist on developing solutions based on those principles and insist on measuring other proposals against those principles.

3. Be prepared to oppose Republicans when they are wrong and side with Democrats when they are right, but always make the decision to support or oppose a matter of first principles and the application of those principles.

Advocating first principles with clarity was the essence of then Gov. Ronald Reagan's 1975 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. He called for "bold colors and no pale pastels." He believed so deeply in first principles and was so courageous in advocating them that he challenged the sitting (appointed) Republican President Gerald Ford in the primaries in 1976.

Advocating first principles is essential because the American people are very confused about what to do. We are in an economic mess at home. Some of our state governments are in worse shape than the federal government in Washington (note Sacramento, Calif., and Albany, N.Y., for example). A Republican president just presided over a disastrous mismanagement of the economy with massive increases in federal spending and even bigger increases in taxpayer liabilities.

The Bush-Obama big government, big bureaucracy, politician-empowering, high-tax, high-inflation and high-interest-rate system continues to grow and to place the country in greater and greater danger from inflation, bureaucratic control of the economy, political interference in every aspect of our lives and massive debt.

The first job of the conservative movement is simply to tell the truth about how bad these Bush-Obama proposals are. The 2008 $180 billion stimulus program in the spring failed. The 2008 summer $345 billion housing bailout failed. The 2008 fall $700 billion Wall Street bailout failed. That was the first $1.2 trillion, and it was on former President George W. Bush's watch, but all three passed with then Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s "yes" vote.

Now President Obama represents continuity rather than change. The new spending bill (as the president called it in his Williamsburg speech last week) is more of the Bush-Obama continuity and represents more of the same instead of "change you can believe in."

This is debt you can count on and spending you will have no control over. This week, phase five of the Bush-Obama program is being unveiled by tax-evading Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner as he proposes the taxpayer bear another $2 to $4 trillion of potential debt (most of it hidden at the Federal Reserve and never voted on by the Congress).

Simply telling the truth about the big spending has already eroded its support from the American people dramatically. Americans have favored smaller government and lower taxes for two generations. Last week's CBS News poll indicates they still think business tax cuts will increase jobs much better than more government spending.

While telling the truth, we also have to bear the burden of providing solutions and not merely criticism.

The House Republican tax-cut plan would create twice as many new jobs at half the cost of the liberal big-spending bill. George Will's proposal to cut the FICA tax in half for a year would produce much faster stimulation to the economy than a government spending program. Rep. Paul D. Ryan's proposal to eliminate the capital-gains tax would bring much more money into creating jobs than everything the government will try to do through politicians and bureaucrats.

Conservatives need even more bold and comprehensive solutions.

At the Center for Health Transformation, Jim Frogue is developing an anti-fraud program for Medicare and Medicaid, while Dave Merritt is developing a comprehensive new market-oriented health plan for all Americans.

At American Solutions, there is an American Energy, Jobs and Prosperity plan being built that will turn American energy assets (including clean coal, ethanol, more production of oil and natural gas, new technologies from hydrogen to wind and solar and a vastly expanded nuclear-power program, as well as a dramatic modernization of the electric grid and an expansion of conservation) into money that stays here at home.

The next building boom ought to be in America instead of the Middle East, and the future of American energy consumption should be built on paying Americans rather than paying Venezuela, Iran, Russia or any other unreliable foreign country. OPEC's efforts to cut production and raise prices should remind us that the time to invest in new energy resources is now, before the next crisis.

Finally, the conservative movement has to learn to reach out to every American who wants a better future through freedom, hard work and opportunity.

At the 1976 Republican National Convention, Mr. Reagan made a real point of speaking directly to independents and Democrats as well as Republicans. One-third of Mr. Reagan's support in 1984 came from Democrats.

The conservative movement represents all Americans who are tired of big government corruption, big government taxes, big government inflation and big government politicians. That is a much broader audience than partisan Republicans.

The next few years will see a stunning resurgence of conservatism if we simply follow these three principles.

• Mr. Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and his wife, Callista, are executive producers of a new film biography, "Ronald Reagan: a Rendezvous with Destiny," available at gingrichproductions.com.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/11/where-does-the-conservative-movement-go-from-here/

Immigration Laws

2009-02-06T11:03:00.001-08:00

During my last vacation to Mexico, I was thinking that it would be a great retirement place until I found out how harsh their immigration laws are.

These laws are current immigration laws of Mexico.
1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.

2. All ballots will be in this nation’s primary language.

3. All government business will be conducted in our language.

4. Nonresidents will not have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.

5. Noncitizens will never be able to hold political office.

6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or no government assistance programs. Any burden will be deported.

7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.

8. If foreigners come here and buy land, options will be restricted. Certain parcels, including waterfront property, are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.

9. Foreigners may have no protests, no demonstrations, no waving a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.

10. If you come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted and when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken from you.

Transparency and taxes

2009-02-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

Through a bipartisan effort, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act was signed into law in 2006. The Web site, www.usaspending.gov, went live on Dec. 13, 2007. This is free, publicly searchable Web site for federal contracts, grants and payments with exceptions for classified information, federal assistance payments made to individuals and personal information that affects federal employees such as wage garnishments. Inspired by the federal effort, Kansas became the first state to make expenditures available on their Web site. Several other states have followed suit. A Taxpayer Transparency Act was introduced in Colorado in 2007, but it was killed in a house committee.

Colorado should increase the effort to be transparent by making expenditures available and understandable through the State Web site. The data should be searchable within categories and be accompanied by a very brief explanation.

True transparency must include ready access to reliable, comprehensive, timely and easily understandable, information on spending. Active participation of Colorado citizens will depend on the ease of use of this system.

The link to this searchable database should be prominently displayed on the home page of the State’s Web site. The money the State spends is taxpayer money, and through this system the taxpayer will be empowered to see how their tax money is spent.

Another Democrat has trouble paying taxes

2009-02-04T16:12:00.000-08:00

You have got to be kidding me! The do as I say not as I do Democrats want the rest of us to pay more taxes, but their leaders are cheating.

Please join me in fighting the Porkulus Bill

2009-02-03T13:52:00.001-08:00

I participated in a national conference call last night with a group that is trying to get as many people as possible to call DC and encourage the Republican Senators to just say no MoveOn.org is targeting the five Senators below to get them to swing to the Democrat side of voting. We need to support and encourage these particular Senators to do the right thing for the future of our Country. Follow the links below for more info and Sample Scripts.
We have to fight back and the time to start is now.

MoveOverMoveOn

MoveOn.org is targeting Republican Senators to pressure them to vote for the incredibly wasteful and ineffective "Stimulus" Bill, S.1.

We are asking you to rally behind conservative solutions to the current economic downturn and let these Senators know that you are hoping you can be as proud of them when they vote as you were of the 177 Republicans who voted NO in the House.

Collins MAINE - 202-224-2523
Snowe MAINE - 202-224-5344
Gregg NEW HAMPSHIRE - 202-224-3324
Murkowski ALASKA - 202-224-6665
Grassley IOWA - 202-224-3744

Please visit http://tcotprojects.ning.com/group/operationmoveovermoveonorg
and
http://letsgetthisright.com
for more information and Sample Scripts.

We are Republican

2009-02-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

Michael Steele the NEW GOP Chairman!

2009-01-31T14:02:00.000-08:00

Tax Increment Financing (TIF)

2009-01-25T14:11:00.000-08:00

According to a recent news release, the Town of Avon will be funding its public improvement projects for the redevelopment of Avons Town Center with Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenue.

When a public improvement project is carried out, there is an increase in the value of the applicable real estate and the increased tax revenues are the "tax increment." Tax Increment Financing dedicates that increment to finance debt issued to pay for the project. In other words the incremental difference is used to pay for the development rather than other town-wide public projects such as trails, parks and open space. Under current Colorado law school districts are not harmed by TIF as they are in some other states.

Every state, but Arizona has enacted legislation allowing Tax Increment Financing. Government entities prefer this type of tax because it does not require a general tax increase. In the case of Colorado it does not require a vote of the people like other taxes increases under Colorado law.

The original intent behind TIF was to level the playing field between economically distressed and more affluent neighborhoods by providing tax incentives to rebuild in blighted neighborhoods. However the definition of "blight" has become so lax that TIF can used as an incentive for developers in almost any area of most municipalities.
As TIF districts grow exponentially through out the country, groups such as the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group in Chicago are looking at them more closely. (http://www.ncbg.org/tifs/tifs.htm) The city of Chicago, which has used TIF for several decades, has about a third of its property tax revenue tied up in TIF districts. The City of Denver, according to the Front Range Economic Strategy Center, used approximately 7% of its 2003 General Fund Revenues to subsidize TIF shortfalls. General Fund Revenues are typically used to pay for standard municipal services such as police and transit.

TIF districts are usually implemented in the hope of spurring on more economic development. Sometimes this is successful, however, recent studies in Texas and California have shown that sometimes economic development does not always grow city-wide but may only move from one part of a city to another. This can have a negative impact on small business in other areas outside of the TIF district. One of the other potential downsides of TIF districts is the they change the character of a neighborhood and drive up property values to the point that existing residents and businesses cant afford to stay in that area.

Tax Increment Financing is a way for governments to borrow money to pay for improvements now based on the hope of future revenue rather than rather than letting growth naturally pay for itself. In other words it works like a credit card for the government.

As with credit card debt, there is potential danger in tax increment financing, and municipalities as well as the taxpayer should be wary of it.

Being green starts at home

2009-01-15T14:08:00.000-08:00

Sustainable development and sustainable community are the new buzzwords being used by our local governments. Sustainable development is more than green building because it encompasses the environmental considerations of Green building, along with economic and social considerations.

Sustainability is defined as a development or community that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The idea behind the buzzword is to preserve the world for the future. In theory, sustainability should be a common sense, balanced approach to development and the environment.

Taking care of our environment, locally or globally just makes sense, and does not have to be overly complicated. There are some easy, common-sense ways to use less fuel and also save money on your heating bills.

For example, seal up leaky drafts around doors and windows with weather-stripping. Its not hard to do yourself and it does not cost a lot of money. Keep your drapes closed at night to help insulate your house. On sunny days, open up the drapes and blinds to let in the sun's free heat. Shut off the lights when no ones in the room.

These are all examples of common-sense solutions that my parents and grandparents used to keep their fuel bills lower. I doubt that they used the term "carbon footprint," but the energy saving results helped the environment and my family's economy.

Do we really need to waste our money on "studies" and grand plans to be sustainable? Heating sidewalks is not environmentally sustainable and will increase our carbon footprint as a community. Do we need a study to realize that? On the other hand the economic pay-off may sustain the community economically by making our county more attractive to guests. These are choices that have to be made; no amount of money wasted on studies will make the choice easier. In the end it is about finding a balance between caring for people and caring for the planet.

On an individual level, we have to make choices, too. How important is the concept of sustainability to us as a community? Sustainability sounds very desirable when we hear our government talk about it. But are we willing to make our own difficult choices? Are you willing to pay more for your housing (buying or renting) if it means using less energy? What if that means getting a second job? Are you willing to use public transportation instead of your Land Rover? How about some easier choices like making that extra trip to the curb with your recycling when it is below zero?
The point is that a truly sustainable community starts with all of us taking individual responsibility for our environment and each other. We should not leave all the sustainable community choices to the politicians who attend meetings in Bali or to the local politicians. I do not want the government to limit my personal freedom of choice by forcing me into the governments idea of a sustainable community. Nor should we give up our personal freedom to come up with more creative solutions.

Sustainable solutions that really work will come from individuals and business. The reason for this is that sustainable choices make economic sense in the long run. We need to give people and developers freedom to come up with creative sustainable solutions instead of just doing what the politicians tell them to do.

We will also save some tax dollars that are being wasted on "studies."

There is an old adage that should be tied to the word sustainability "Waste not, want not." This type of consumer frugality has gone out of style in our more affluent society. Maybe its time to bring it back.

Snowmelt does not make environmental sense

2009-01-03T14:03:00.000-08:00

The town of Avon asked the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District to contribute $1.3 million to this project. Most of ERWSDs share of that money was for snowmelt in the parking lot of the Avon Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Snowmelt is not environmentally conscious and I object to spending the money to do something that I believe ultimately hurts the environment. Snowmelt systems impact the environment negatively by warming the atmosphere, no matter what the heat source.

Environmentally conscious decisions must be tempered with common sense. Spending our communitys resource for snowmelt in the Waste Water treatment plant parking lot is not my idea of common sense.

Timeline shows Bush, McCain warning Dems of financial mess

2008-12-30T14:04:00.000-08:00

I want more for my money

2008-12-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

Spending priorities may be different, but most people do not want to pay for anything, in the private or the public sector, unless they are getting their moneys worth. This includes everything from Open Space to paper towels. Why do you think the stores are a mob scene on the day after Christmas when everything is on sale? The average American consumer wants to get their moneys worth and would prefer a deal.

The successful businesses in the private sector understand this concept. If a local fast food place offered the exact same sandwich as its competitor across the street for two dollars more it would soon be out of business. The consumer would spend money at the business that offers the same sandwich for less money.

The public sector has a monopoly on some services that the private sector does not provide like road improvements, law enforcement, public safety and national defense. Historically, monopolies have been inefficient and hurt the consumer. This is one of the reasons the Federal government regulates monopolies in the private sector. On the Federal level, I believe we would have bi-partisan agreement that the Federal government has not become more efficient as our taxes have increased. So why should we start down that road of paying more taxes to the Eagle County government? Are we sure that the County government is using the tax dollars they already get as efficiently as possible, like private business?

If the County insists on keeping all that extra property tax money, we need to be convinced that we are getting our moneys worth from the tax dollars that are already being spent.

Does the County government use our tax dollars efficiently when it competes with the private sector, instead of partnering with local businesses? Does government cheat enterprising small businesses when it takes on services that belong in the private sector? One great example of this is the many parents who provide quality child care in their home, so they can supplement their income and spend more time with their own children. Government run child care hurts these businesses when it starts a competing child care center.

Another example is all the County and Town tax dollars that have been spent on economic development initiatives. Why not support the local Chambers of Commerce, but let the Chambers, not the County take the lead? The Chambers are the experts in this area, because they interface with the business community every day. I am sure they know how to proceed without spending tax dollars on new logos, endless studies and a make-over.

Its time to look more closely at what we are paying for with tax dollars that should be done in the private sector. The competitive environment of the private sector forces businesses to be more efficient. When a private sector business provides services the business pays taxes that fund necessary government services - like building better roads to improve traffic flow.

When the public sector takes business away from the private sector, it hurts the community twice. First, tax dollars are taken away from other higher priority items like public safety and roads. Second, it hurts small businesses that are providing these services, and they pay less in taxes as their revenue declines.

Government monopolies are never more efficient than the private sector, no matter if the business is for-profit or non-profit. Personally I would rather give more money from my pocket to local charitable non-profits, the local Chamber and other local business than to the County government. These organizations operate on small budgets and use my money wisely.

I am not blindly supporting the lowering of taxes; I just want to get my moneys worth from the taxes I am already paying to Eagle County, before they start taking more out of my pocket.

Eagle County Seniors

2008-11-18T08:21:00.000-08:00

Five days after the election one of the Minturn seniors passed away in the nursing center in Carbondale. I visited her in Carbondale when I was on my way to the Roaring Fork Valley to campaign. The facility was nice, clean and she was treated well by the staff. But she missed her friends and family. And they missed her.

Lottie lived in Minturn for most of her life. Her daughter cared for her as long as possible, but her daughter had to work full time. After Lottie’s last trip to the hospital, she could not be left home alone. She had to go to Carbondale because she needed more care than we provide for our seniors in Eagle County.

Lottie’s friends and family made the 140-mile round trip drive to visit her in Carbondale as often as possible. If they could have made a 55-mile round trip to Eagle to visit her they would have visited more often. Lottie is just one of many seniors who have not been able to live out her final days in our community and as a community we are worse because of that. Before the rest of us moved here to play, they were ranching, working in the mines and working for the railroad. They built the towns where we live and play.

Every two years when there is a county commissioner election, the candidates talk about expanding senior care in Eagle County. The people who have helped make our community great should have an opportunity to live out their final days in our community. To be a complete community we need facilities and services that will keep our aging family members and friends close us.

I ask you to join me in keeping this issue on the table for the Board of County Commissioners. Urge them to facilitate a solution by bringing seniors, senior care-givers, health-care providers, hospitals, non-profit foundations, developers, land owners and other people who are passionate about this issue to the table.

Yes, I have a soft spot in my heart for seniors, but I am not the only one. During my campaign I found that people of all ages believe this is an important issue. Two years from now, I hope this is not an election issue.

I hope we will make significant progress in solving this problem before any more of our seniors have to leave our community. Don’t do it for votes. Do it because it is the right thing to do. Do it for Lottie.

Smear campaigns serve no one

2008-05-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Super Tuesday is behind us and the buzzword this year is change. But one part of the political process that has not changed is smear campaigning and mudslinging.

Smear campaigns are neither new nor limited to one political party. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and their respective parties waged a famous mud-slinging campaign in the 1800 presidential race.

Thomas Jeffersons opponents called him a drunkard and atheist and stated that murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced if Jefferson were to become President. Jeffersons supporters countered by accusing Adams of having two mistresses, which Adams flatly denied.

Another famous example was the 1828 presidential election, after which Andrew Jackson blamed John Quincy Adams for Rachel Jacksons untimely death because of a marital scandal brought up in that election.

Dont misunderstand me: I think it is OK to point out the differences in policies and issues between candidates. If a candidate has accepted contributions from a special-interest group like the tobacco lobby, pointing that out is useful to the voter making a decision so long as it is true. Increased knowledge about the candidates stance on issues helps the voter make an informed decision. And there is nothing wrong with holding candidates accountable for past voting records. But the name calling and twisting of the truth has to stop.

Smear campaigns take the form of unverifiable rumors and are often distortions, half-truths or even outright lies. They can also be differentiated from information-oriented campaigns by their tendency to dwell on the remote past and on issues not directly related to the candidate or relevant to the current election.
Sometimes this backfires when candidates bring out stale, tired charges about their opponent that have been aired in previous campaigns. Dredging up the remote past does not set well with many Americans.

Saying someone is ugly or that a candidates son had a DUI a couple of years ago and using that to imply there is a drinking problem in the family now THAT is a smear campaign. It benefits nobody, usually hurts someone and is an insult to the political process. The real problem with smear campaigns is they divert attention away from the real issues of the election. The other problem is that qualified people may be reluctant to run for political office in this era of character assassination by innuendos and half-truths.

Some people are passionate about their politics in our country and in our county. It is actually refreshing to see people from all political perspectives be passionate about our joint future, instead of apathetic. The best solutions for our future will come from healthy debates between diverse groups of citizens. There is a big difference between a smear campaign and one that uses facts to point out the differences between two sides of an issue. If there were not differences, why would we bother having an election? Pointing out the differences is part of a healthy debate.

Smear campaigns use broad generalizations and irrelevant information to appeal to our emotions and discourage reasonable discussion. Why do Americans pay attention to smear ads? Its for the same reason they rubberneck at the scene of an accident. These ads appeal to some basic emotions. Unfortunately, so long as we allow these emotional campaigns to influence our vote, they will not go away.

Lets try and make our points about the issues without name-calling, attacking candidates families, friends or pointing out that their great grandmothers hairdresser may have been the sixth cousin of someone who once owned slaves. It makes an interesting soap opera, but it does not make our county or our country a better place.

New Housing Guidelines

2008-04-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

In response to Eagle Countys high housing prices, new housing guidelines have been introduced that will require developers to set aside a percentage of the units of each new development for affordable housing. The inclusionary zoning component of these guidelines will effectively drive up the housing prices in Eagle County.
Inclusionary zoning can actually drive prices higher by discouraging builders from building new homes and forcing them to charge higher prices from most of the ones they do build. In a recent publication, Housing Supply and Affordability: Do Affordable Mandates Work? Two California economists estimate that inclusionary zoning in the San Francisco Bay Area has increased the average cost of new homes by $22,000 to $44,000.
Here is an example of how inclusionary zoning works. The inclusionary zoning requirement mandates that developers sell 30 percent of new homes for less than market value. To make up the difference, the developer will increase the price of the other 70 percent of houses in the development. The higher price affects the price and the assessed value of all nearby homes, resulting in increased property taxes to the existing homeowners. The property tax increase is in turn passed on to the renters who are trying to save for a down payment and they have to wait longer to get into the housing market.
Unnecessary building and zoning regulations often add to the cost of housing by preventing the use of innovative building and land development techniques. Cost-effective regulations should streamline the land-use regulatory process so as to minimize the time required to get permits to build new housing. One of the effects of many of these rules is to delay the amount of time it takes to get a permit to subdivide or build. This increases the risk faced by the homebuilder and the cost of borrowing money for the project. That cost is also added on to the price of the house.
The proposed Housing Guidelines are overly complicated and impractical. The cost of these guidelines will not be passed on to the developer, but they will be passed on to all of us through increased property taxes and rents as our assessments continue to climb. Anything that drives up the cost of new homes also leads to an increase in the price of existing homes. While some counties require inclusionary housing, many others offer expedited permits, reduced fees, zoning variances or other incentives for developers who voluntarily build affordable housing.
The increased density that is encouraged in these guidelines will have other negative side effects. The increased density will cause more crowding in our schools, increased traffic congestion, and a further burden to our public safety officers and overcrowded Justice Center. Some areas of our community, in particular neighborhoods in Edwards, are already outgrowing their infrastructure and it is unfair to force increased density upon these communities. The other negative effect is that one of our major industries, construction, will slow down and people may lose their jobs. Many of us are affected directly and indirectly by new home construction. Plumbers, framers, electricians and many others along with their families will be affected if the construction business slows down. We should all be very concerned about the path that the current commissioners have chosen.
A true affordable housing program for Eagle County will require drastic action. It will require less government intrusion and more creative thinking. Home builders, businesses and local officials should work together to overcome cost-adding regulations that will drive up the cost of living for all of us. Eagle County should be a partner with the community to encourage common sense free enterprise solutions that include infrastructure development that compliments increased density.

Colorado caucus: grassroots politics at its best

2008-02-01T14:06:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of information on the Internet about how to go to your caucus meeting
Feb. 5.

The caucus is where the nominating process starts for each individual party. It is the first step in the grassroots partisan political process. Caucuses are made of neighborhood precincts. Eagle County is divided into 30 precincts. The Secretary of States Web site has a tool for researching local precincts at http://www.sos.state.co.us/Voter/voterHome.do.

So why should you go to your caucus meeting? Dont we all have enough on our plates? You might think that primaries would be much simpler and less time-consuming, but through the caucus system you can directly influence who is on the ballot to represent your party in November. It is grassroots politics at its best. If you are frustrated with status quo politics, the caucus is where you can begin to influence the future. If there are issues in your party you would like to support or candidates you want to support, it starts at the caucus level. You must attend your precinct caucus if you want to support your candidate by being a delegate for the county assembly, state or national conventions.

At the caucus meeting, interested people gather in their precincts to discuss what the party platform should look like and to elect people to the county partys central committee. They also elect delegates to the county assemblies in the spring. At the county assembly, candidates are chosen for county offices and delegates are chosen to go to the state convention to select party candidates for state offices.

In past years, Colorado voters have voted for president in a primary election in August. The candidate choice for both parties was pretty well decided before Coloradans had a chance to vote, due to the timing of our primary. This year we are part of Super Tuesday and our votes at the caucuses will have more influence on the national level than they have in the past. Dont miss an opportunity to be part of this historic event in Colorado.

Any ordinary caucus participant who can articulate his or her candidates strengths can have extraordinary influence in these gatherings. If you think your candidate is great, go to your caucus and tell your neighbors why they should support him or her not everyone at the caucus will have made their decision before they get there. And remember the people who take time to caucus usually take time to vote in the general election.

Caucuses are people powered. The caucuses are run by volunteers who share similar values. If you are new to the caucus process, there will be plenty of people to help you at the gatherings of both parties. The party leadership basically gets to choose delegates to the national convention in a primary system. The caucus system allows the delegates to be chosen from the grassroots. The caucus system gives the regular person access to the countrys political system and a direct role in American democracy.

There is a lot of voter apathy in this country and in this county. On the local level, the town of Vail election in November 2007 had a dismal voter turnout of 24 percent of registered voters. If you have not voted because you think no one is listening to you or you cannot influence the election process, go to your caucus. Those willing to participate in person can have their voices heard and be part of giving the power back to the people.