Is Mayor Hickenlooper's regionalism the right prescription?

In nearly seven years as mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper has sang the tune of "regionalism" in economic development and planning. His views on regionalism take on new significance now that he's seeking to be governor of Colorado.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czath4I24wQ

[Video above queued up at :48.]

"The days of Denver making decisions for their own benefit are over," Hickenlooper said recently at The Colorado Real Estate and Economic Summit. "And we recognize we'll never be a great city without incredible suburbs. And that we will do everything from now on to make sure that, if we can't find a decision that serves both the suburbs and the city, we'll find something else to work on. And there was a long pause. And then huge applause. Right. Exactly."

A key example of such regionalism during Hickenlooper's tenure as mayor is FasTracks, the 122-mile commuter rail and light rail project he championed and which metro voters approved in 2004 through a $4.7 billion ballot measure.

"So here is a question Colorado voters should ask gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper: Based on what we know today, including 40 percent cost overruns, revenue shortfalls, and the trivial amount of congestion relief that FasTracks is expected to provide, would you still have endorsed the 2004 FasTracks ballot measure?"

That question was posed by The Antiplanner, a website of Randal O'Toole, a longtime critic so-called "smart growth" planning and of FasTracks.

For more from Hickenlooper and O'Toole about FasTracks, see WhoSaidYouSaid's video...

Stokols: "Businesses that do online sales in Colorado are just going to leave."

Democratic lawmakers in Colorado defending their pursuit of sales taxes from online purchases are setting up the state as a bad place to do business (witness Amazon.com severing its Colorado affiliates) and a hassle for consumers.

Listen to some of the fallout described by two journalists on Independent Thinking, hosted by Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-cZ2pzirOY

[Video above queued up at 6:01]

ED SEALOVER of the Denver Business Journal: In addition to having Amazon send people this little note saying you've got to pay the state, they're also asking Amazon to send notes to the state, saying, 'Oh, by the way, so-and-so bought this much worth of product from us; they owe you this much.' So, when you get the note from Amazon, there's a note going to the state saying, 'John Smith owes this much.' And you could be, if you're not paying, the state could come after you.

CALDARA: So this will be a nice little tattletale system. So since they're not going to enforce it, they can't get Amazon to collect it, Amazon will have to tattletale on what I buy. And guess what, I'm not paying the sales tax. Nobody's going to be paying the sales tax.

ELI STOKOLS of Fox 31: Well, it's tough. And that's what, you know, businesses that do online sales in Colorado are just going to leave. We've done stories on that at Fox 31 where you have entire businesses - 20, 30 employees - and they say, 'These jobs are gone because we're not going to do this business in this state.'

You have farmers out there on the Eastern Plains of the state that have these big...I mean, we're not talking small quantities, they're buying a lot of agricultural products. So the tax on them is big. You can understand the outrage from these specific businesses, companies, these industries that are sort of being picked out.

Because there's 100 of these exemptions and credits on the books and only 13 of them were proposed, I think, by the governor's office and the JBC (Joint Budget Committee) to be, these loopholes, to be closed. So you can understand why those folks feel like this is a little bit arbitrary. Even though we've heard from the governor over and over again: 'This isn't arbitrary. This is a balanced approach and we're not killing business.'

Hickenlooper: Bennet "can't be that moderate and still have a happy life."

Another gem from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's remarks at the Colorado Environmental Coalition's "Rebel with a Cause" gala in May 2009, this one regarding his former chief of staff (and fellow Wesleyan University alum), U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado.



http://blip.tv/file/2230615/

Hickenlooper was describing [at 4:06 of the video above] how activists could and should push "moderates," a category in which Hickenlooper placed himself.

"And that's what you are, in many ways, you have to push us moderates further to the extreme. And I realize when you spank me or you spank [U.S. Interior Secretary] Ken Salazar that’s really what your doing. But don’t hit so hard sometimes.

"And recognize, recognize that we do have a remarkable new senator, Michael Bennet. Right? Who’s gonna be a moderate, right? But don’t forget that his wife (Susan Daggett) was an environmental lawyer for many many years. She used to run Earthjustice and has done remarkable work under the radar for many people. But he can’t be that moderate and still have a happy life. So, whatever you might be [disconcerted] about, you know, let him, give him kind of a couple, a little slack for a little bit of time, knowing that he will always come back to the right decision."

I'm all for the men recognizing we're the ones who are in charge, but this is taking it a little far.

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Hickenlooper: "Insane not to be spending tens and tens of billions a year" to stop climate change. "But I'm a moderate."

Hickenlooper: "Insane not to be spending tens and tens of billions a year" to stop climate change. "But I'm a moderate."

When Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper spoke at the Colorado Environmental Coalition's "Rebel with a Cause" gala in May 2009, he showed he was down with the green crowd.



http://blip.tv/file/2230615

"What’s weird about me being up here is, you know I have a masters in geology, I took climate studies," said Hickenlooper [at 3:00 of the video above]. "I’m one of those people that says I’m not sure how fast the climate..I’m not saying that the sky is falling. I’m saying that clearly the climate is changing, clearly mankind’s activities are causing it. And that we’d be insane not to be spending tens...tens and tens of billions of dollars every year buying insurance to begin to prevent and stop that change that’s happening. But I'm a moderate."

If this is Hickenlooper's definition of moderate, we'd love to know what (and who) he thinks is radical.

Apparently not Van Jones, whom he praised [at 10:55 of the same video] as "a rock star. He is. Everything you've ever heard about Van Jones, he's bigger and better in life than what you’ve heard."

Jones, given the CEC's "Rebel with a Cause" award, wasn't able to attend the event in person.

In September, Jones resigned his Obama Administration post as green jobs czar "amid controversy over past activism."

"Mr. Jones was poised to play a prominent role in disbursing tens of billions of dollars of stimulus money," wrote The Wall Street Journal. "It was the ideal perch from which he could keep funding the left-wing networks from which he sprang, this time with taxpayer money."

Gosh, I love speeches - don't you?

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Update: WhoSaidYouSaid is mentioned on the 630 KHOW talk show Caplis and Silverman here: http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/DENVER-CO/KHOW-AM/031210HOUR1.mp3

More links to Hickenlooper's remarks on climate change, prior to running for governor of Colorado:

Hickenlooper on "dramatic" climate change; billions for what?

Hickenlooper on climate politics: the slavery analogy

Hickenlooper: "Transit is the new black. It's hip."

Can you Reid the writing on the wall?

Oh Senator Reid! Don't go on record and say that no one was talking about using reconciliation as a way to pass health care reform. Appointed U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis represent just the Colorado contingent talking about it.

BTW, Reid is reportedly proposing filibuster reform in the NEXT congress.



You know you're in trouble when your political demise is being predicted on Saturday Night Live.