Yesterday was a bad day for President Obama in Colorado, a swing state -- and an important one for him come November, 2012. Coloradans voted to reject tax hikes to pay for more education spending, and this can be seen as an unfavorable harbinger of things to come for our free-spending president. Spending more on education-via tax hikes is a a signature initiative of his.
From the Los Angeles Times:
In what could be a harbinger of the 2012 election, Colorado voters Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have raised nearly $3 billion for education by temporarily increasing state income, sales and use taxes.
With 59% of the projected vote counted, Proposition 103 was trailing 65% to 35%, the Associated Press reported.
A likely swing state in 2012, Colorado is a particularly interesting place to see which argument voters cotton to. Its population is well-educated, with more than one-third of residents older than 25 holding at least a bachelor's degree. But the state's unemployment rate has been stuck around 8%, and a solid share of the electorate finds taxes distasteful, passing a major tax-limitation measure in 1992.
If Proposition 103 had passed, individual and corporate tax rates would have temporarily jumped from 4.63% to 5% and the sales and use tax rate from 2.9% to 3%, the Associated Press reported.
Obama's billion dollar campaign war chest is a little less comforting this morning. Supporters of the measure were better funded than its opponents, yet the measure was soundly defeated.
Much of the huge stimulus bill that Obama and Democrats passed in 2009 flowed to teachers and teachers' unions. The president has been haranguing Republicans and others to support his job bills measure that would again give a lot of money to teachers and unions. These are reliable Democratic donor groups and some portion of that largesse would have been siphoned to support Barack Obama.
Yet more and more studies, including this very recent one, show that teachers and the educrats (teachers aides, superintendents, therapists, etc.) are very well compensated compared to people who work for private companies. When considering not just pay but benefits, retirement packages, job security and vacation time, teachers earn roughly 50 % more than they would likely receive in private sector jobs.
Yet educational achievement has been plummeting while spending has been soaring.
Voters are becoming better educated regarding the true facts about education spending. It is not investing in our children's futures as much as it is investing in cushy pay packages for teachers and increased donations to Democrats. This is a campaign issue for the GOP that will pay off.
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