This just in from my source close to the Greeley City Council: Ward IV Councilwoman Pam Shaddock has resigned.  She is going to work for Senator Mark Udall.  I wish her well.  But I can’t lie, I won’t miss her political philosophy.  Way too left of center for my taste!

Now the Council must assign someone to fill her position until the November election.  This is the perfect time to get a fiscal conservative on the Council who will then have the advantage of being an incumbent.  Know a fiscal conservative from Ward 4 who might want to sit on the City Council?  Have him/her apply!

Sources just told me that at the April 21, Loveland City Council meeting, McWhinney, developer of Centerra, withdrew its request to amend the Master Financing Agreement and divert taxpayer funds for safety improvements to the I-25/Hwy 34 interchange.  This is great news for Northern Colorado because had the Loveland City Council approved the amendment as Loveland Politics predicted, it could have seriously jeopardized regional cooperation.  I would like to take credit for those words but I can’t.  They came from the Greeley City Council.

Just today, the Greeley City Council received a response to its letter to the Loveland City Council.  Interestingly enough, the response didn’t come from the Loveland City Council but rather from McWhinney.  Seems that Loveland has abdicated its authority for both blight designation and correspondence to McWhinney.

Score one for the citizens of NoCO.

On Tuesday’s show, Liam Weston, proprietor of Loveland Politics, revealed that the mystery Fortune 500 companythat McWhinney says will come to Northern Colorado if $12 million in public funds earmarked for I-25 and Hwy 34 improvements is diverted to a private project to lure the company and its jobs to Loveland is United Agri Products, which already has an office in Greeley.

Fortunately, the Greeley City Council was listening and sent a letter to the Loveland City Council expressing its concern over changes that would allow McWhinney to delay improving the dangerous I-25 and Hwy 34 interchange.    According to Loveland Politics:

Greeley is asking how the dilapidated condition of the intersection could have been used to qualify McWhinney’s
properties for blight designation to receive subsidies but now is adequate to carry the increased traffic loads created by
McWhinney developments.  In addition, the letter points to the fact that taxpayers and shoppers in Centerra were told the
extra tax money (McWhinney tax) was being collected to improve the dangerous intersection.

Loveland Politics is the ONLY news outlet that taken the time to properly report this story.  I’m not going to rehash the history,  but I suggest all reader educate themselves about this issue by visiting LovelandPolitics.com.   Readers will find that Centerra is an example of abusive corporate welfare.  It is the socialization of risk with the privatization of profit.  Taxpayers foot the bill, developers get the cash.

Powerful words from my friend Ross Kaminsky (www.rossputin.com).  Check out his reasons for getting rid of Northern Colorado Republican legislator Don Marostica.  Ross cites, among other things, Marostica’s support of eliminating the state’s 6 percent spending cap and his efforts to thwart transparency in state spending.  In his post at Peoples Press Collective, Ross writes:

Let me make this clear: Don Marostica is a cancer in the Colorado government and in the Colorado Republican Party. I urge anyone who believes he has or can raise the money to challenge Marostica whom I believe is quite vulnerable just based on his record and his insults of fine men (regardless of what you believe of their political views) like Mark Hillman, Josh Penry, and Jon Caldara.

Loveland Politics also has extensive coverage of Marostica’s antics, including the story about Marostica calling Republicans “liars.” How did he get elected? Oh yeah, he financed his seat with his own money.

According to my sources, HB 1299, National Popular Vote to destroy the Electoral College, still is waiting for second reading in the Colorado Senate.  Right now the budget is the main priority.  And ”since 1299 is controversial they [Democrats] will wait for the right political moment/day to consider it.”

Another news organization opposes Andy Kerr’s horrible legislation.  In Denver Times,the new internet news gathering site created by former Rocky Mountain News employees, writes “Make no mistake, there are good arguments to be made in defense of HB 1299 .”  The editorial goes on to state,

[W]ithout the Electoral College, those less populous states would become entirely redundant and cities would gain at the expense of rural areas, thus undermining the sort of broad-based consensus the current system supports. Also endangered by a move away from the Electoral College would be the stability of the two-party system and the separation of powers.

I have not found a reputable news outlet in Colorado that favors the Electoral College.

Supporters of the Electoral College have been saying that saving the institution should not be a partisan issue, but in Colorado it turns out that it is.  The Colorado Democrat Party Platform calls for the abolition of the Founding Fathers’ stroke of genius to maintain the delicate balance in our republic. 

On page six of their party platform Democrats state:  “We call for the replacement of the Electoral College with the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States.  We support adoption of the National Popular Vote Bill in a compact with other states.”

I’m not surprised that the Democrats call for the abolition of the Electoral College.  It is vital to our republic but not to the “democracy” that the Colorado Democrats would like to force on all of us.  Now I know where Andy Kerr gets his vision of American government.  Page six also states, “trustworthy elections are a cornerstone of democracy.”  Either they never learned we are a republic, or worse, they don’t care.

I give Damon Agnos credit for being honest in his blog at the Seattle Weekly.  He is the first supporter of the Koza scheme (a.k.a. national popular vote) to admit truthfully the motive behind destroying the Electoral College.  Agnos writes, “a national popular vote would disempower the staunchly Republican farm states in the middle of the country.”   At least he doesn’t employ the “every vote should count” myth.

He also reports on two amendments that I suggest Colorado state senators opposed to Andy Kerr’s disastrous legislation to kill the Electoral College introduce next week before third reading.  The first amendment would require every state to have the same ballot.  As it stands now, states decide the process by which a candidate may petition to be on a ballot.  That means that not every presidential candidate is on the ballot in every state.  It’s difficult to have a national popular vote if we don’t have a national popular ballot.

The second amendment is more intriguing and possibly more controversial in Colorado.  Colorado could require that the only way it would join the Koza compact is if no states allowed incarcerated felons to vote.   For instance, Vermont, which passed Koza in both houses in 2008 before the Governor vetoed it, has no restrictions on convicted felons voting; they are allowed to vote from jail.  In Colorado, convicted felons may vote only after they have completed their parole.  Procon.org is a great source for differences between states on the voting rights of convicted felons.   Bottom line, unless all states adopt the same requirements for convicted felons voting (and I’d suggest standardized voter identification requirements too), then Colorado cannot enter into the Koza compact. 

These amendments might make next week’s debate interesting.

Fiasco is the word that InDenverTimes business reporter David Milstead (formerly with the Rocky Mountain News) used on my show last week to describe Greeley-based New Fronteir Bank.   According to Milstead’s article, New Frontier has nearly 157 percent problem loans to capital.  If I understand this correctly, for every $1.57 in bad loans, the bank only has $1 in capital — placing it second on the list of problem local Colorado banks.   (First on the list is Colorado National Bank in Colorado Spring, which was seized by regulators on March 20) It doesn’t take an investment banker to figure out that is a recipe for disaster.  

Milstead also suggested on my show that possible new investors in the bank that would help make it solvent were disappointed with the bank’s financial situation saying the numbers were worse than the investors anticipated.  Sharon Dunn confirmed that in an excellent article in Saturday’s Greeley Tribune.  

I take no pleasure in writing about the situation with New Frontier Bank.  NFB does a great job of community outreach by sponsoring events and civic organizations.  However, bad and risky loans also affect the community but in a negative way.  I would not be doing my job if I ignored the situation. 

To be fair, New Frontier was not the only local northern Colorado bank on the list but the others barely made the list and some would fall off if bad loans between 3o and 90 days late were not included.  Milstead does a great job of explaining how he got his numbers and why he used certain information to develop his list.  I encourage everyone to read “Colorado banks in distress: Warning signs.” And remember the FDIC guarantees deposits up to $250,000 so you don’t have to stash your cash in your mattress.

The Colorado Senate has delayed second reading of HB 1299, national popular nightmare, until Monday.

HB 1299 is scheduled for second reading in the Senate on Friday, April 3.  National Popular Nightmare or the Koza scheme likely will pass the Senate and wait for the Governor’s signature.

In the last few weeks I have discovered that supporters of this plan to render Colorado politically impotent are not impressed with arguments about federalism and Founding Fathers’ original intent.  Koza scheme supporter State Representative Claire Levy said as much when she made this frightening statement in a letter to Ross Kaminsky, “It [the Electoral College] prioritizes an unfounded notion of federalism over achieving the result that best reflects the will of the majority. “  You can read her complete response at www.rossputin.com.

Opposition to this nightmare is mounting.  The Denver Post opposed the Koza scheme in a house editorial.  I don’t believe a newpaper in the state has endorsed it.  Yet HB 1299 marches along despite the growing public outcry.