On Point: A poor excuse

Published January 30, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More Opinion Columns & Blogs

'I don't believe the economic prospects of this state rest on whether I sign or veto (House Bill 1072, which undermines the state's Labor Peace Act). I don't believe that."

- Gov. Bill Ritter, in a speech last week to business leaders

So that's the standard, is it? We should worry about legislation only if it threatens to send the state into an economic tailspin.

If so, why worry about legislation at all? A single bill is almost never so dangerous that it threatens prosperity by itself. Economies stagnate from a hundred blows, delivered over time and with a hundred different excuses. This bill - which makes it easier to create "all union" agreements - is just one of those smacks.

The governor could just as easily say he doesn't believe the economic prospects of this state rest on any single proposal affecting workers comp, liability, taxes, the cost of energy, or any other area influencing private-sector investment and risk-taking. But each is still important in its own right, and the cumulative effect of such changes can be crippling.

If Ritter is going to sign HB 1072, and it seems clear he is, he should defend it as good policy instead of downplaying its significance. If he believes unions should have an easier time forcing nonmember workers to pay dues, he should make the case for why.

There must be a very good reason a governor would support gutting a key provision of a 60-year-old labor law - even if we do all agree that the state will survive.

Help business help us

Virginia Sen. James Webb worries about globalization, and he used stark words last week in the Democratic response to the president's State of the Union speech.

"Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world," he exclaimed. What's more, "Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them."

Never mind that Webb's populist rhetoric is highly misleading (see my columns of Jan. 25 and 26 last week at Rocky MountainNews.com/drmn/ Opinion), the fellow obviously believes it. So maybe he's open to ideas for boosting blue-collar wages and redirecting investment from overseas back to within our borders. Here's one: Cut taxes on corporations.

Egad, you're thinking, Democrats can't do that. But why not? With the exception of Japan, every one of the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development taxes corporate profits at lower rates than the U.S. And some of them, such as Ireland, deliberately lowered their rates some years ago in a successful effort to attract investment.

My source for these facts: Kevin Hassett, director of economic studies at the American Enterprise Institute. As he writes in the current issue of The American magazine, "The dramatic flow of international capital to the lowest tax environment is one of the strongest and most reliable findings in the history of economic science."

No wonder "both foreign and domestic firms have good reason to steer clear of the United States," he adds. No wonder that "insourcing," the practice of foreign firms investing and creating jobs in America, "is now actually on the decline."

So don't just bash corporate executives for sending jobs overseas. Give them a reason to bring some of those jobs home.

Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News