Today’s Wall Street Journal‘s lead editorial lambasted Colorado Democrats and liberals for their scheme to raise a billion dollars per year in taxes on all of Coloradans through Amendment 66.  Who needs the Denver Post editorial board and it’s cowardly kowtowing to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper when one of the most widely-read newspapers in the country lays out the dangers of Amendment 66 in plain English?  From the editorial:

“Unions know that money is fungible, so a tax increase earmarked for education means that other revenue can be used to delay reform in the state’s badly underfunded public teacher pension plan. Funding for Medicaid, roads and other state priorities won’t decrease, so earmarking more for education would increase pressure for another tax increase. It’s no accident that Amendment 66 states that “all tax revenues attributable to this measure to be collected and spent without future voter approval.”

The Denver Post, in its sycophantic endorsement of Amendment 66 glossed over the facts entirely to end with the lamest ending to an editorial that we’ve seen in recent years: “We enthusiastically support the passage of Amendment 66. It’s for what’s most precious to us all: our children.”

Here are the points that the Post missed that the Journal understood:

• Amendment 66 is an end-run around taxation restraint.
• The slippery slope of increased taxes that are sure to follow.
• This tax makes Colorado less competitive as compared to its tax-friendly neighbors.
• The negative impact on small businesses, 92% of which are taxed at the individual rate.
• That this will certainly be a PERA-backfill, at least, at the district level.
• The lack of education reform contained in this dangerous bill.
• The unfair routing of education funds into Denver to the detriment of the rest of Colorado.
• The lack of correlation between increased funding and better outcomes.

This all begs the question – how does a national newspaper, headquartered in New York City, better understand the issues that Coloradans face than a newspaper located in Colorado?  The answer is simple.  The newspaper in Denver, the Denver Post, is beholden to special interests in the state, such as Hickenlooper and his lackeys.  Shame on you, Denver Post and Dean Singleton, for putting special interests ahead of the welfare of Coloradans.