From 200-2004 we were under a wage and hiring freeze. As employees left the state to look for better jobs, those employees were not replaced. Neither were retirees. In my Department, our workload has increased while our workforce has shrunk. From 2004-2008 we were given raises of 2%, 1%, 2% and 2%. Those of use who qualified for bonuses (top performers) received an additional 2% bonus in 2007 and 2008. Currently we are once again under a hiring and wage freeze, even though Governor Ritter claims Colorado is solvent. The reason for this is stated as “ in case we need to cut back later”. Let’s punish the workers first.

Since 2000, I have had my workload increased dramatically with no possibility of a promotion, because no one gets promoted anymore. Right now, I and a coworker are performing our assigned work, and also doing the work of another employee who left. I took over work from another employee who left a year ago and was not replaced and I am increasingly responsible for more and more of my supervisor’s work as she prepares to retire. With all that, I am consistently trated as a top employee. My work is all done and it is done on time and correctly.

I am tired. And I am sick and tired of hearing from people who don’t know what they are talking about that I am not worth what I’m paid. I work my ass off and so do my coworkers and this state could not operate without us. How many of you would work for eight years with a net decrease in pay and a net increase in responsibility, and maintain an excellent job performance? I think it is reasonable that some become jaded and less likely to put out your best effort. However, there are few of us who do that. We stay in this job because we really believe that we are performing an important service for the citizens of the state.

State employees work for wages just like every other employee in this country and we deserve compensation. We work to support our children. I was forced to drop my health insurance on my four children for three years because I simply could not afford it. Thousands of Colorado state employees have no health insurance for their families because we are precluded from receiving SCHIP or other government assistance for our families and cannot afford what the state offers. This year, we are facing a double digit increase in our health insurance premiums and stagnant wages, so thousands of state employees’ children will be uninsured again.

Not defending Ken Lay and indefensible, criminal acts but maybe your state should have produced their own electricity instead of buying it from here. What you guys wanted was consumption without accountability. That is, pollute Texas’ (and we have the most polluted state in the U.S.) environment while protecting yours. No one can produce electricity without the side effects.

This makes it sound like Texas produces the electricity consumed by California. Not so. Enron and Reliant and others were using sophisticated market techniques to manipulate the price of electricity produced mainly in the Pacific Northwest and California. We didn’t want “consumption without accountability.” We wanted electricity at a fair price without getting soaked by predatory energy profiteers. Because of deregulation and the refusal of the feds to get involved, we got screwed. And yes, a lot of the blame goes on the state government of California for permitting the circumstances that led to the abuse. Governor Gray Davis lost his job over this. Even more blame goes to the federal government for looking the other way while all this was going on. I once again refer anyone interested to the Wikipedia article on “California Electricity Crisis.”

1. Are electric cars better for the environment than gasoline powered ones? Where does the bulk of our electricity come from? Coal

2. Dakinat over at The Confluence has written reems of papers praising the Pigoux taxing system and fuel without ever seemingly addressing its efficacy. Does it even work? I know it hasn’t for cigarettes. In my opinion (I think it concurs with yours) attempting to tax a commodity out of usage, especially the one that drives the economy both figuratively and literally, is a disaster in the making.

Not defending Ken Lay and indefensible, criminal acts but maybe your state should have produced their own electricity instead of buying it from here. What you guys wanted was consumption without accountability. That is, pollute Texas’ (and we have the most polluted state in the U.S.) environment while protecting yours. No one can produce electricity without the side effects.

Think about that every time you open up yor fridge or blame someone else for your problems. Yes, Ken Lay and Enron victimized your government. Wouldn’t have been possible if you would have had a competent government to start with or decided it was ok to pollute someone elses home instead of your own. Ultimately, every problem I have in my life is of my own making. More American’s should take this approach because it is really the only honest one there is.

also heard on the news yesterday that ***another state wants to tax the mileage people drive. I can’t remember which state it was,

That would be my state, Oregon. We pay high state income taxes, property taxes and our wonderful governor wants to put little chips in our cars so he can tax us into the poor house. He is also going to raise our vehicle license fees and Oregon driver license fees.

This is the same governor that went to China a couple of months ago and discussed purchasing a fleet of the new electric cars they will be producing for the state agencies. Of course there are only two stations in the state that are set up for charging these electric cars that run all over the state and those two stations are in the Portland area.

Oh yeah, I live in Texas.

We have no state income tax, no personal property taxes. The cost of my license plates run from $60-80 a year. State sale tax is at $.0625/1.00. My property taxes are similar to other states, $2,400 on $200,000+ value.

We have a balanced budget law and we have a surplus in state funds.

Yeah, and we have a Republican governor who has come out against bailouts for any state telling them that they need to do the same thing as their citizens, learn to live on the money they have.

I think in my region of the country belt tightening means spending less on non-essentials than usual.

also heard on the news yesterday that ***another state wants to tax the mileage people drive. I can’t remember which state it was

Isn’t it CA?

BREAKING******************
Another Clinton cabinet member is appointed.
Obama has chosen former Clinton White House chief of staff, Leon Panetta, to run the CIA.

Panetta has no experience in the intelligence world. He was director of the Office of Management and Budget, and a long time Congressman from California.

This is change???

The important overall point here is that government does not really ‘make’ much, it mostly just redistributes money. And the bigger it gets, the more it sucks in for administrative nonsense. Uppity is calling for a cut of the nonsense, which makes perfect sense.

Additionally, the way government redistributes wealth is not based on the relatively predictable rules of a free, open market (supply, demand), but according to its own whims (lobbyists, corrupt buddies, whiney governors, etc.). This lack of predictability for people running businesses causes them to behave much more cautiously than if things were run by the free market rules. THEREFORE, the economy will also (in addition to being more bloated) not grow as steadily with this increased government interference as it would without it. At some level, it will even eventually fail to prosper. (Anyone for Communism? Has that ever worked? ‘Nuff said.)

I am not advocating a laissez faire approach (forget taxes and government activity completely, “anarchy” as you put it), and I don’t think Uppity is either, but the main idea is to find the balance of minimally required federal taxes so that our federal government can do whatever they must do for us. AND, after that, each state must take responsibility for its own budget and prosper or suffer by it.

The solution isn’t to give them more money. The solution is to take it away from them.

Well, an astronomical amount of money was taken away from the government of California by Enron and other energy manipulators back in 2000-2001. That didn’t do us any good. In fact, it is one of the reasons we are now in trouble in CA. Some of the primary electricity pirates were based in Texas. So, I’m glad to hear you folks are doing swell down there.

I live in Texas and we don’t pay a state income tax. We don’t tax groceries either. We pay 8 1/4 % sales tax, local property taxes and we pay a vehicle registration tax. We are completely in the black. Our state government is fiscally solid.

That means that you aren’t paying for my services through our income taxes. The states that are having the problems and who are getting my income tax dollars are states like NJ, California and New York.

The people in those states pay exorbitant income taxes, sales taxes, etc. and it isn’t enough. Why? It isn’t enough that those state governments, and many others, waste your tax dollars but they aren’t satisfied until they waste mine as well.

And you should also realise that those of us who do not pay state income taxes also don’t get the benefit of deducting those from my federal bill. It isn’t like we don’t pay our fair share of taxes. It is that we do it in a slightly better way.

It seems that one of the greatest truisms about our country is that no matter how much money you give a government, any government, to run it they’ll find a way to blow the money and not get anything accomplished either. The solution isn’t to give them more money. The solution is to take it away from them.