Good governments fix the mistakes they make. Bad ones dig in their heels and refuse to yield. An interesting comparison can be seen between how Denver dealt with illegal parking tickets and Speaker McNulty dealt with obscene registration fees.
The City of Denver obstinately refuses to refund nearly a MILLION dollars in illegally given parking tickets. Clearly, the City of Denver made a mistake. This is how they chose to respond.
On the other hand, the Legislature made a mistake last session in implementing late fees of up to $100 for car registration. Voters were furious about this regressive fine and elected Republicans who made rescinding this law a point of their campaigns. The fine affects poor people in a far harsher way, as a beat up Pinto owner pays the same late fee as someone driving a Porsche.
Speaker McNulty chose to listen to voters and fix the most offensive part of Bill Ritter's car tax. Yesterday, the House passed a bipartisan bill that reverts the late car registration fee back to $10. Three Democrats — Max Tyler (D-Golden), Pete Lee (D-CO Springs) and Millie Hamner (D-Dillon) — supported the measure.
We dare Democrats in the State Senate to oppose this bill. Look how well it worked out for Debbie Benefield, Dianne Primavera, Joe Rice, Kathleen Curry, and Sara Gagliard, all FORMER Democrat legislators, on the wrong side of this issue.
These two stories really aren’t comparable. One is legislation, one is a couple people without proper paperwork. One is political hype, one is the rule of law.
Additionally, you say:
Are you saying that the poor lawbreaker should be treated more leniently than the rich lawbreaker? Should the rich pay more in fines than the poor person? That doesn’t sound very Republican to me…
Sounds like the regressive nature of the fine gives it bipartisan opposition.
Both these governments are just strapped for cash. They’d rather whip more revenue out of the people than cut spending. Kudos to McNulty for working to keep a campaign promise.