Resorts and Resilience

Column by George Sibley

Government – November 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

I’M WRITING FROM JUST OFF U.S. 50, the east-west highway for Central Colorado, but I’m well beyond Central Colorado — out in La Junta, sitting in the shade of some big old trees in their city park, while my partner does a grants workshop at Otero Junior College for Southeast Colorado.

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County commissioners’ e-mail sought

Brief by Allen Best

Government – September 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado’s open records laws allow individuals and organizations to request copies of public records. With that in mind, an organization called the Republican Study Committee of Colorado has asked for the e-mail messages sent by all three Gunnison County commissioners, plus Garfield County’s Trési Houpt and San Miguel County’s Art Goodtimes. All are Democrats except for Goodtimes, a Green Party member.

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With taxes

Column by George Sibley

Government – October 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

SO IS COLORADO’S REFERENDUM C a tax increase or not? Does TABOR give us “rebates” or “refunds”? A lot seems to ride on definitions in this election–but the truth is, your definitions probably follow from your politics, rather than determining them.

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Removing ‘Service’ from the IRS

Letter from David Larkin

Government – July 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

To the Editor:

There is a key document at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), where I work, that tells us how we are to do our jobs. It’s called the Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) and this is what it says about Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs) and the employees who work there: “The TAC program provides an opportunity to create a positive image for the IRS to the general public,” the manual says, adding: “You are the IRS to every taxpayer you assist, so it is especially important to be fair, patient and willing to listen to every taxpayer’s situation.”

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Bazillions and bazillions

Column by George Sibley

Government – April 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

A TRILLION. Two trillion. That’s the size, in dollars, of the budget proposed by another of those Presidents who was supposedly going to cut federal spending. Turns out he only meant to cut revenues; we just assumed that meant he would also be cutting spending.

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That other world is growing faster than we can keep it out

Letter from Slim Wolfe

Corporations and government – January 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Ed and Martha,

I got a chuckle out of Lindell Cline’s letter. Once I would have written him off as a hopeless reactionary, but now I’d call him a hopeless reactionary with a couple of good points. Yes sir, if you want the government to rein in everything wicked, then you have no moral recourse if the government comes over to tighten the reins on you. There is a time to quit whining and thumbsucking and start piling up rocks or whatever you can get and make a little bit of the world into your corner where things work right according to you. And, no sir, I did not vote for that old curmudgeon Nader as I’ve got all the old curmudgeon I need right here in my own home.

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Bashing government won’t help, either

Letter from Art Goodtimes

Government & Corporations – January 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Ed & Martha:

I can sure understand Lindell Cline’s frustration with government, particularly at the national level [Cline’s letter in the December, 2000, edition]. But who in his right mind would advocate bashing government instead of corporations?

Sure, total government control, as exists in some countries, is bad news. But it’s setting up a false dichotomy to compare the American political system of checks and balances with the increasingly centralized power of multi-nationals and their international supra-government institutions like the World Bank and the World Trade Organization.

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It’s time to take local control seriously

Essay by Ellen Miller

Government – November 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine

by Ellen Miller

It’s hard to worry about too many people being on drugs. What’s worse is that too many people have completely lost any sense of reason or perspective and they aren’t on drugs, so what in the world do they blame it on?

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The year everything went wrong

Letter from Paul Martz

Government – August 1994 – Colorado Central Magazine

Just a short note to tell you that I enjoyed and agreed with Martha’s editorial in the July Colorado Central. My personal vote for the year things started going bad is 1965 too, and I’ll tell you why. It was the first time that I remember when a passerby who stopped to help was sued by the “victim” of an auto wreck. The driver responsible for the accident didn’t have insurance, but the innocent bystander did: Sue the passerby.

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