TABOR was so successful in Colorado that voters in 2005 decided to suspend it to allow the state to recover from the damage it already had done.

A few  nuggets from CBPP:

• Between 1992 and 2001, Colorado declined precipitously from 35^th to 49^th in the nation in K-12 spending as a percentage of personal income. As of 2006, the state maintained its low ranking among the states at 48th.
• Colorado’s average per-pupil funding fell by more than $600 relative to the national average between 1992 and 2006.
• Colorado’s average teacher salary compared to average pay in other occupations declined from 30^th in the nation in 1992 to a low of 50 ^th in 2001, and edging up only slightly to 49th in the nation as of 2007.

• Under TABOR, Colorado declined from 23^rd to 48^th in the nation in the percentage of pregnant women receiving adequate access to prenatal care, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Colorado plummeted from 24^th to 50^th in the nation in the share of children receiving their full vaccinations. Only by investing additional funds in immunization programs was Colorado able to improve its ranking to 43^rdin 2004 and to 23^rd in 2008.
• Under TABOR, the share of low-income children lacking health insurance doubled in Colorado between 1992 and TABOR’s suspension, even as it fell in the nation as a whole. Colorado now ranks last 47^th among the 50 states on this measure.

Wow. A formula for disaster, based on a concept that candidate for governor Scott Walker embraces.

The sentencing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. before Circuit Judge Richard Sankovitz.

Andrews pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to one count of burglary. He still faces misdemeanor charges in two other cases.

But can’t we do better than this?

Mayor Tom Barrett and Common Council President Willie Hines announced a joint effort to entice Google to build a high-speed broadband system in Milwaukee.

“I’m hoping this Google Search leads to Milwaukee jobs,” Barrett said in a prepared statement.

“As a city we’re just the right size for the Google Fiber project, with ample telecom infrastructure, and diverse neighborhoods featuring an array of residential housing styles,”Hines said.

The big effort so far? The city submitted its application for the network on the first day they were accepted.  Other cities are doing much more. Topeka, Kansas, changed its name to “Google” for the month of March. Duluth, Minnesota, mayor Don Ness’ efforts included jumping into a cold lake.

From the Associated Press:

Shortly after Google’s announcement, Ness gathered business and technology leaders to discuss the project. The city quickly teamed with neighboring Superior, Wis., and started lining up business support, money and volunteers to help the effort.

They built a testimonial-laden Web site — http://www.googletwinports.com — that includes sections for people to pledge to subscribe as soon as the network is available or to show their interest in working for a “fiber-based business.”

It also includes several videos, including a spoof news conference responding to Topeka’s gigabit gambit. In it, a phony Duluth mayor proclaims that “in order to prevail in the Google pandering arms race,” every first-born child would be named “Google Fiber” or “Google-ette Fiber.”

The campaign’s Facebook page is nearing 10,000 members, and the city and its volunteers are producing a 10-minute YouTube video, to be aired at a rally, about why Google should pick Duluth.

And from Business Week:

The city of Greensboro, N.C., is preparing an “Operation Google” gift package for delivery to Google headquarters and has earmarked $50,000 for promoting a Google broadband effort.

Barrett is urging people to visit the Google website to nominate Milwaukee for the project.

The city’s efforts just don’t seem to be in the same league as its competitors’.

The Congressional Budget Office just released its analysis of President Obama’s 2011 budget, and its not totally reassuring.

The deficit would be $1.5 trillion this year and $1.3 trillion next year. There is a bit of good news — if one defines that term very, very loosely — buried in there. The deficit would be 10.3 percent of gross domestic product this year, but then tumble to 8.9% next year. The 2009 deficit was 9.9% of GDP.

Here’s the really scary thing: government debt would increase from 53 percent of GDP last year to 90 percent of GDP in 2020. Interest payments would increase dramatically.

The president also piles up some BS about the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, estimating them at $50 billion after next year. CBO instead keeps them at the current $130 billion.

The best news, though, is the president’s health care reform would reduce the deficit by $.2 trillion.

Let’s do it, for reasons related both to ethics and economics.

So how long before she asks for her teaching job back? And could she be denied on the basis of her being a thief?

Residents who do not complain will still be assessed 50% of the cost of replacing the damaged sidewalk if the replacement is done as part of a larger project, such as the sidewalk replacement project in Story Hill last fall.

Aldermen Michael Murphy and Joe Dudzik voted against the measure, sponsored by Ald. Robert Bauman.

Murphy, who represents the Story Hill neighborhood on the Common Council, said the ordinance could cause “huge financial problems for the city.”

The city estimates the measure will cost a maximum of $50,000, but Murphy was skeptical of that figure.

“There’s going to be a lot of unfairness in the system,” Murphy said in an interview. Some residents will be unaware of the ordinance and won’t request that their sidewalks be replaced. Homeowners hit with a special assessment for a sidewalk replacement project probably won’t be particularly happy if their neighbors did not have to pay for similar work simply because they complained.

Residents who notice city sidewalk slabs damaged by the roots of city-owned trees may be able to avoid future special assessments of several hundred dollars (depending on the number of slabs damaged) by contacting the Department of Public Works and requesting a slab replacement.

It’s just all those other trillions that the feds can’t fully explain.

Government bookkeeping is so bad that the Government Accountability Office can’t determine just exactly what our national fiscal condition is.

“Certain material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted in conditions that prevented us from expressing an opinion on the fiscal year 2009 and 2008 financial statements other than the Statements of Social Insurance,” Acting Comptroller Gene L. Dodaro reported last week, adding that “Material weaknesses resulted in ineffective internal control over financial reporting (including safeguarding of assets).”

Makes you feel happy about paying those federal income taxes, doesn’t it?

Reading Dodaro’s statement makes you wonder why some of these people have jobs. The GAO, Dodaro said, can’t render an opinion on the government’s financial statements for three big reasons:

(1) serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD) that have prevented DOD’s financial statements from being auditable, (2) the federal government’s inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernmental activity and balances between federal agencies, and (3) the federal government’s ineffective
process for preparing the consolidated financial statements. In addition, the financial statements of the Department of Homeland Security and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for fiscal years 2009 and 2008 were not auditable or were not subjected to audit by agency auditors.

The federal government could not determine exactly how much in “improper payments” it was making, although the amount is estimated at $98 billion, nor could the government ”reasonably assure” that appropriate action is being taken to stop them.

The government also could not identify and resolve information security control deficencies or — ready for this one? — “effectively manage its tax collection activities.”

The GAO sounds a very loud warning that both parties in Congress have thus far elected to ignore:

Looking ahead, the federal government will need to determine the most expeditious manner in which to bring closure to its financial stabilization initiatives while optimizing its investment returns. In addition to managing these actions, problems in the nation’s financial sector have exposed serious weaknesses in the current U.S. financial regulatory system, which, if not effectively addressed, may cause the system to fail to prevent similar or even worse crises in the future. The current system, which was put into place over the past 150 years, is fragmented and complex and simply has not kept pace with the major financial structures, innovations, and products that emerged during the years leading up to the recent financial crisis. Consequently, meaningful financial regulatory reform is of utmost concern.

All this is really scary stuff, brought to the country by one of the most credible sources there is. Anybody in Washington listening?

This big pile of road salt was dropped in the middle of Story Parkway just east of Mitchell Blvd.

C’mon, guys.