By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
It’s a tough time to be a Coloradan, Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen summarized for the Colorado Senate as the 75th General Assembly opened this week.
“In recent years, our state has been burdened with policies that are at best heavy-handed, at worst suffocating,” he said.
Such as, Lundeen said, regulations, fees and the hated 10-cent per-bag fee each time a Coloradan goes to the mini-mart or the grocery store. They are policies that “weigh heavily on the families we are here to serve,” Lundeen said. Some have estimated the 10-cent bag fee is a $500 annual tax for the average family.
The Republican warned that economic anxieties of Coloradans are real, tangible and growing.
“We have passed policies that overreach,” he said. “Laws that, under the guise of leading the way, pose burdens with no discernable benefit — policies that dictate decisions people can make about how they live, how they travel, how they heat their home or cook their meals, policies that pile costs onto the backs of families and businesses, while achieving no meaningful impact on the global issues they claim to address.”
But, there’s an opportunity for a course correction, if the majority party will join Republicans in taking it, the minority leader said.
“Colorado families are crying out for help, and its our duty to respond,” Lundeen said. “Will you join us in making Colorado affordable again.”
Senate Republicans, in advance of the 75th legislative session, have identified $4,500 in savings for each Colorado family, he said, by cutting first “the inexpicable”.
“The chamber of commerce has said we are the sixth-most regulated state in the nation,” Lundeen said. “When we cut the red tape, we don’t just help businesses.”
He called for legislation that would undo the pain placed upon Coloradans.
“Let’s choose to first do no harm,” Lundeen added. “This struggling Colorado is not the Colorado we know and love. It is not the Colorado we should accept. We can and must roll back the burdens that make Colorado less affordable.”
In a direct plea to Coloradans, he summarized: “This legislature, this session we must put you first.”
Lundeen concluded, “Let’s make this a year of unity, a year of action and a year of hope.”