We recently discovered that Sen. Greg Brophy has a blog, which is great and it's encouraging to see more Republican officials using technology. One item that caught my attention was Brophy's recent re-running of a 2005 op-ed in opposition to Referendum C. As you may recall, Ref. C was decried far and wide as the largest tax increase in Colorado history and was aimed squarely at gutting the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Unfortunately the measure was endorsed by a handful of Arlen Specter-esque Republicans, primarily from Bill Owens' inner circle, who chose to join with the Democrats in passing it.

Brophy is re-running his 2005 op-ed as the recession is giving Democrats an excuse to rehash the same 2005 excuses for a repeat of Referendum C. Brophy's post is worth a read and seems just as relevant today as it was when it was written:

Americans are capable of doing great things, but most of the time, we only act when we absolutely have to take action. We have reached the time to take action to address the six main causes of the budget problem.

I do not know that the State’s budget problem can be solved only through a reduction in spending, but I do know that without the pressure applied by the structural deficit there will be no attempt made to reduce spending or even to reduce the rate of growth in spending, especially when the additional revenue exceeds the structural deficit by a factor of five!

I do know that we can balance next year’s budget without closing the universities and without closing down the State’s parks; the warnings of Chicken Little not withstanding.