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Marostica sorry for calling GOP leaders 'losers' and 'has-beens'

Lawmaker pushes measure to repeal 6% spending limit

By Ed Sealover, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 20, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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Rep. Don Marostica will apologize to Republican leaders he called "losers" and "has-beens" but will push forward with a spending bill that has turned some in his caucus against him.

The Loveland Republican appeared at a Thursday news conference with Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, to announce the duo's sponsorship of Senate Bill 228, which would repeal Colorado's 6 percent general fund spending limit.

Known as Arveschoug-Bird, it restrains the growth of budgets for departments such as higher education and human services.

Marostica's appearance at the news conference came one day after he was pulled into two meetings with House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, to discuss GOP opposition to the bill.

Upon learning that prominent Republicans - including Independence Institute President Jon Caldara, former Senate president John Andrews and former treasurer Mark Hillman - were exerting pressure to kill it, he told the Rocky Mountain News: "They're has-beens. They're losers."

That remark earned the second-term legislator a meeting with state GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams, at which Marostica got their phone numbers and agreed to apologize.

Despite rumors of a push to strip Marostica of his post on the Joint Budget Committee, party leaders did not punish him.

"They're still fellow Republican Party members," Marostica said of Caldara and the others after the meeting. "We've got to agree to disagree and move on."

Now, he and Morse must rally support to repeal the limit, an action the Office of Legislative Legal Services has said can be done only by a vote of the people. The issue is whether the 1991 law was wrapped into the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights when that constitutional amendment was passed.

The limit is particularly difficult during a down economy, because essential services that are cut during a recession won't get a big infusion of money to restore them when the economy recovers, Morse said.

Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, predicted that with the current infusion of government money into the economy, the country would see hyperinflation, with rates rising 15 to 18 percent, in three to five years.

Because the state constitution requires education spending to rise annually by the rate of inflation plus enrollment growth, the 6 percent general fund growth limit essentially would mandate that all other services get cut, he said.

White, however, withdrew his co-sponsorship of the bill this week, leaving Marostica as the only Republican backing it.

Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, said the 6 percent growth limit has kept spending in check and allowed Colorado to avoid a huge deficit.

He also is concerned that eliminating the cap will cut transportation funding, because money over the cap is now directed to roads and capital construction.

What's legal?

There is debate over whether eliminating the 6 percent general fund spending limit can be done by statute or must be a constitutional amendment.

* Constitutional argument:

Wording in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights amendment states, "Other limits on district revenue, spending and debt may be weakened only by future approval." The growth cap is clearly a limit on spending, said Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield.

* Statutory argument:

Arveschoug-Bird, at its establishment in 1991, called itself a "restriction on state appropriations." Removing the general fund cap will not increase state revenue or spending; it will only remove a mandate on how revenue must be spent, says former Colorado Supreme Court Justice Jean Dubofsky.

Comments

  • February 20, 2009

    4:44 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Domino writes:

    Marostica is right. Jon Caldera, John Andrews and Mark Hillman are losers. They represent the anti-tax, anti-government wing of the GOP that has caused the mess that the country and the Colorado state government are in.

  • February 20, 2009

    6:43 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    GK writes:

    What's to be sorry about? It's the utmost truth.

  • February 20, 2009

    7:14 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    BillK writes:

    By refusing to punish Marostica, the GOP proves once again why they will never return to power until they learn that idiots like this "Republican" should never be tolerated in the party.

    Until they learn that it was the ABANDONMENT of conservative principles that caused them to be booted from power, the GOP is doomed to insignificance.

    The usual snide comments from the resident liberals notwithstanding.

  • February 20, 2009

    7:17 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Woodrow writes:

    AWESOME

  • February 20, 2009

    7:22 a.m.

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    sunshinestate writes:

    Only Republicans and am Strange Radio are allowed to level this charge against Democrats.............

  • February 20, 2009

    7:35 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    zivo24 writes:

    The only thing with wrong with what Marostica said is that it wasn't broad enough in it scope. There are plenty of other "has beens and losers" in the state GOP; Tancredo, Schaffer, Doug Bruce, Dave Schultheis, Dan Caplis, Bill Owens, Mark Paschall, etc.

    What they all have in common is that they all care more about winning for their party then they care about doing what is in the best interests for our country and our people..and each one is disciple of the politics of division to accomplish their selfish goals.

    To Don Marostica....find your 'nads, man. Don't be bullied. Why aren't you demanding on the legislature floor that Mike May explain how and why Caldara, Andrews and Hillman are able to "exert pressure".

    Who is Mike May representing...these three boneheads..or his constituents?

  • February 20, 2009

    7:50 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    BillK writes:

    Hey, if you want to see people who care about nothing but destroying everything that made America great and turning into the next Socialist failure, watch what Obama, Ritter and friends are doing.

    If the Founding Fathers could see the rush to Government control of everything occurring today, they'd have not bothered with the Constitution and Declaration and stayed British subjects.

    No, it's not just Democrats; Republicans started this by expanding Government and spending like drunken sailors on leave, and then when Bush flushed free market principles it was really all over.

    If Republicans are going to act like Democrats, people will just vote for the "real" thing.

    Perhaps when all small businesses are taxed out of existence and the only employer left is the Government, people will begin to understand.

    But even that is hoping for an awful lot.