‘Defiant’ Democrats

Dear Editor:

Those who thought change was good back in 2006 when Colorado voted in Democrats as the majority, think again.

Last year, Gov. Ritter pushed through a property tax increase. Our collective property taxes went up about $136 million. We will likely pay almost $6 billion more over the next 10 years.

Democrats recently passed a new tax on marriage, raising the fee on a marriage license from $10 to $35. They passed a new tax on the issuance of birth certificates. Both these increases had nothing to do with marriage licenses or birth certificates, but do take more money out of our pockets.

The governor has signed on to support an initiative to increase taxes on the oil and gas industry by $250 million per year by taking away a tax credit that they get for taxes paid to local governments. Since the governor is an attorney and not an economist, he had the nerve to say that raising their taxes wouldn’t cause our already high gas prices to go up any more. Oh, really? Look forward to reduced supply and higher prices. Incidentally, raising taxes when Colorado and the national economy appear to be heading toward a recession is extremely risky and downright irresponsible.

But there are some moneys that our Colorado Democratic legislators want to cut back on. All the Democrats in the Senate felt it was necessary to defeat a bill (SB125) that would have prohibited the distribution of sexually-explicit materials to minors. The bill, proposed by Sen. Harvey, was originally for only $125,000, but he amended it to reduce the fiscal impact to $50,000. Still, the Senate Democrats opposed it. Minutes later, they killed a bill that would have given prosecutors the option of seeking the death penalty for rapists who assault children younger than 12 years old. Apparently, the Democrats could not find a few thousand dollars in a $17.8 billion budget to protect our children.

Recently, the Democrats voted across the board to pass a bill called SB200, which addresses discrimination against homosexuals in fair housing practices but actually discriminates against religious individuals’ rights to practice their faith and lays groundwork for state-sanctioned abuse of individuals and organizations that have faithfully held religious convictions. This bill was subject to heated debate in the Colorado General Assembly, but the Democrats passed it anyway. After repeatedly writing to our Rep. Kathleen Curry about this unfair bill, she stubbornly stated she would still vote for it. Whom exactly is she representing?

Those who eagerly voted these current legislators into office should note that they have fallen devastatingly sort of their duties as our representatives. Many are renegades, corrupt, defiant and will cost us not only fiscally but our very freedoms if left unchecked. Coloradans/Americans better pay more attention in the next election, taking the time to look closely at those who wish to represent us and not blindly believe everything reported by the mainstream media.

Sunny Stapelman

Glenwood Springs