|
By: Nancy Todd, Karen Middleton, and Su Ryden
From: Aurora Sentinel
Published: Thursday, April 1, 2010 11:06 AM MDT
At the beginning of the legislative session, we pledged to side with you, your family and small business. We renewed our commitment to create jobs, continue to balance the budget, and be fiscally responsible. We’re halfway through, our work is not done, but we are making clear progress.
We have worked diligently to cut government by streamlining operations and closing a shortfall of $2 billion. We eliminated nine tax exemptions for big businesses and special interests, because they, too, need to pay their fair share to help balance the budget. These exemptions amount to just 5 percent of the exemptions big business has enjoyed. By closing these tax loopholes, the state will have $15 million in 2009-2010 we won’t have to cut from schools, public safety, and other social services, and significantly more in future years.
At the same time we took a scalpel to balance the budget, we introduced measures to remake government so it is leaner and smarter. The SMART Government Act is well on its way through the legislature. It demands a new level of government accountability to show which programs and agencies use tax dollars wisely and efficiently. Because in these tough times, we need to make sure that every dollar counts.
We’re also saving money and achieving greater efficiencies in the state’s health care budget through a Medicaid Modernization Act, which is making its way through the Senate now. This legislation will fight fraud and cut waste.
We have continued our aggressive job-creation agenda. Our number one bill this session assures that 30 percent of our state’s energy is from clean sources such as wind and solar by the year 2020. This legislation stakes our claim as the undisputed leader in new energy. A recent report says this bill will support 3,000 “construction period” jobs per year. We are also growing jobs in the New Energy Economy, creative industries like film and the arts, and health care jobs.
We’re also working to make it easier and cheaper for small businesses and families to move to renewable energy. An additional 2,000 new energy efficiency jobs will be created by the passage of the New Energy Jobs Creation Act of 2010, which increases access to bonds and loans for home energy improvements.
More Aurora families are struggling financially than at any other time in recent memory. That’s why we are not allowing partisanship get in the way of good public policy. Instead, we are prioritizing getting people back to work by making it easier to access job training and retraining.
We passed the Green Jobs Colorado Training Program, which ensures that Colorado is supplying new energy companies with the best educated and most highly skilled workforce in the country.
And we’ll introduce legislation that will make it easier for small businesses to access state loans and credit.
We’re also providing incentives to encourage new jobs for health workers like doctors and nurses who work in underserved and rural communities and who deliver primary care through the passage of the Health Care Jobs Act. This bill ensures that a single primary care physician can generate over 20 jobs in a community. And SB 58 is expected to increase nursing applicants to Colorado nursing programs by 50 percent, thanks to an expansion of the Nursing Loan Forgiveness Program.
Even though this is a difficult budget year, we have created legislation to make lives a little easier for Colorado families in these tough times. We’ve introduced legislation that halts the cycle of debt perpetrated by dishonest lenders, protects the value of gift cards and protects neighborhoods from foreclosed properties.
We’ve also been working to protect more than 15,000 jobs and create long-term job growth in Aurora with HB 1205, sponsored by Reps. Ryden and Todd, which reinforces the good relationship Aurora has with Buckley Air Force Base. This legislation protects jobs, Coloradans and national security.
On the education front, we passed HB 1208, which allows students to seamlessly transfer their community college credits in specified majors to four-year schools. This bill, sponsored by Rep Todd working with Aurora Community College President Linda Bowman, ensures a clear path for Colorado students as they pursue their undergraduate degrees.
There is still much work to be done. We look forward to working on legislation that will help us save money and create a better student assessment tool by overhauling the costly and unhelpful CSAP testing system. We’ll also support quality public education through updated, more relevant teacher evaluations and a school transparency bill.
As we continue our hard work at the Legislature, we would like to hear from you about how to move Colorado forward. You can contact us at
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
,
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
, and
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
, and keep up to date at www.coloradohouse.org.
Nancy Todd, Karen Middleton and Su Ryden are Democratic state representatives from Aurora.
|
