Final grades are in for the CO legislature in the Bill Ritter tenure.

[Democrats_win]

Recall in 2007 when Bill Ritter completed the Democratic takeover of Colorado from Bill Owens and the Republicans. It was called the Colorado Miracle.

Then in 2007, the only thing the Democrats did, was open liquor stores on Sundays. I worried that the Democrats wouldn't do anything for the people of Colorado and then they'd raise taxes.

Well, that's essentially what they did except it was worse. It wouldn't be so bad if they had done something to help Coloradoans out. For instance, they could have created a state bank whose profits would go to the state general fund as they have in North Dakota. (Thom Hartman has described how this was a great success.) They could have made it more difficult for credit card usrists to scam Coloradoans. They did finally pass a Payday lending bill which was good. (Ritter also managed to tighten drilling regulations which the people of Colorado wanted. Business hated it because--WHAAA---they no longer had their own way.)

They passed the teacher tenure bill. This is unforgivable. They essentially did the work of Republican Radio blowhard Mike Rosen on this. Shame on the Democrats. This won't improve education in Colorado. They need to make students more responsible for their own education: if you don't pass the test with a "C" or better, you don't move on to the next grade. It's the distractions that students face that keeps them from fulfilling their potential. Teachers can't force the students to learn if they'd rather watch TV. I wonder if this new bill will punish teachers who actually give "Fs" to students. We have all these tests but they don't guarantee that a person graduating from High School has any competence. That is what should have changed. This tenure bill is bogus.

The Democrats raised fees and took away the tax exemption on candy and soda. These were very regressive measures. I now pay for road damaged caused by the big trucks that are based in Commerce City yet have Wyoming license plates. Yes, the budget has been very difficult for our Democrats. But it is going to continue to be difficult for a number of years in the future. Don't make it worse for the people who can least afford it!

Finally, the Democrats clearly had no agenda when they took over in 2007. This is in contrast to the Republicans. They even passed their anti-teacher agenda while the Democrats were in charge! There is no question, the Democrats earned an "F-minus." The only thing that kept them from getting a zero was a handful of good things they managed to do. Much more must be done at the state and national levels.