{"id":1317294,"date":"2019-12-16T23:08:01","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T06:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/under-the-dome-i-dont-want-to-write-this-column\/"},"modified":"2019-12-16T23:08:01","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T06:08:01","slug":"under-the-dome-i-dont-want-to-write-this-column","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/under-the-dome-i-dont-want-to-write-this-column\/","title":{"rendered":"Under the Dome: I don\u2019t want to write this column"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just kidding. I\u2019ve been submitting an article every month for almost eight years. It\u2019s always a struggle to anticipate what my legions of loyal readers want (or need) to know about state government or about the adventures of Bob and Joyce as they dive ever deeper into the political abyss. So, I\u2019m starting to write with an unusual lack of enthusiasm. Let\u2019s see how it goes.<\/p>\n

Today I\u2019m fighting a cold garnered from who knows which handshake, avoiding national \u201cnews,\u201d reading about a hundred pages to prepare for Joint Budget hearings on education, and trying to finish in time to watch the Broncos and their new hope for a quarterback.<\/p>\n

So, what do potential readers really care about today? Forget impeachment. How about the $34 billion state budget? After growing about 6% for the last several years, it\u2019s flattening to 3% this year. The big items that dominate all else are school finance at $8 billion, health care and prisons.<\/p>\n

At the Joint Budget Committee (JBC), we\u2019ve been working since early November to turn the Governor\u2019s \u201csuggestions\u201d into a budget that we can recommend to the legislature during the session. Budget is policy, and I\u2019ve been privileged to support my Senate and House caucuses by representing us on the budget committee for the past six years.<\/p>\n

Or, how about upcoming state elections. Vote for me! But do start to pay attention. Plenty of good candidates from both sides will make a lot of promises and provide questionable information about their opposition.<\/p>\n

We, legislators, are starting to focus on our bills for the session. Each legislator can propose five bills, and many bills will emerge from an almost record number of interim committees. I\u2019m planning to offer a significant initiative to attack health care costs to follow up on my work on transparency and reinsurance.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll also work through the JBC to provide a bill that will eliminate the waiting list for intellectually and developmentally disabled people waiting for Medicaid services.<\/p>\n

I still co-chair the Education Leadership Council, the \u201cvision\u201d place for our education system from birth to retraining as an adult. We made great strides in the past two years, reaching out to the public and influencing legislation.<\/p>\n

And, of course, we\u2019ll have some fights over \u201cguns and butter,\u201d namely a proposal for state-run family leave, a public option for health insurance, more gun control, etc., etc. But, hopefully, we\u2019ll find some new agreement on school funding and money for roads.<\/p>\n

Well, that wasn\u2019t too bad, I hope. Just in time for the Broncos! Keep those emails coming. Remember, I don\u2019t work for the government. I work for the people. That would be you<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the Dome\u201d appears on the third Tuesday of the month. State Sen. Bob Rankin, a Carbondale Republican, is in his first term representing Senate District 8, which includes Garfield, Grand, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt and Summit counties.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just kidding. I\u2019ve been submitting an article every month for almost eight years. It\u2019s always a struggle to anticipate what my legions of loyal readers want (or need) to know about state government or about the adventures of Bob and Joyce as they dive ever deeper into the political abyss. So, I\u2019m starting to write […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 08:45:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}