Beauprez Appears to be CO GOP Gubernatorial Candidate

I imagine that considering your concern above, you will be back in this thread to give Hickenlooper a "well done" about those bills. Right?

No RR, I was pointing out that the State Legislature voted against additional fire fighting resources back in 2012 and then they flip-flopped after one of the worst wild fire seasons in the history of Colorado. Governor Hickuplooper was against additional state fire fighting resources before he was for it.

Tell me I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that we collectively pay employees of the Department of the Interior in the US Forest Service and the National Weather Service to do mundane tasks like predicting droughts, wild fire danger, and other climate related issues relevant to future wild fire dangers. I'm also pretty sure that the threat of wild fires in the near term is communicated to various officials of the State Government and very probably the Governor himself.

Various officials of the State Government knew of the high potential for wild fires during their 2012 legislative session and knowingly voted against additional fire fighting capabilities anyhow. Then when the predictions came true and Federal fire fighting resources were already over taxed, property owners lots their homes and suffered fire damage to their land those same elected officials suddenly change their minds and pass similar bills that they recently opposed. I'm surprised there isn't a sound clip out there some where on the tubes of the interwebs of Hickuplooper saying "...gee, I said I was sorry about all of the fire damage, WFT?!"

Is it a partisan issue or should this be an issue that voters ignore party and hold individual elected officials accountable for? For me they are one in the same.

Fires are one of many issues that our current Governor has to answer for this election cycle. I am still holding out hope that the collective "we" got a little smarter over the last four years but I fear that the reality is that "we" are more dependent on the Federal and State Governments than ever. What's worse is the "we" apparently are happy to settle for less but unwilling to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions.

otisptoadwater wrote:

Various officials of the State Government knew of the high potential for wild fires during their 2012 legislative session...

Do you have a source for that statement? Just asking.

Source? I don't need no stinking source...

Consider the saga of Senate bill 245...

June 18, 2013
By Leslie Jorgensen

DENVER – The Black Forest fire toll escalated Monday to 502 homes destroyed, two deaths and more than $5.5 million in federal costs alone. The worst fire in Colorado’s history sparked criticisms of Gov. John Hickenlooper and the Democrat-controlled legislature for kicking a state-owned fleet of firefighting planes off the list of funding priorities.

Senate Bill 245, a bipartisan proposal sponsored by Sens. Steve King (R-Grand Junction) and Cheri Jahn (D-Wheat Ridge) with Rep. Bob Gardner (R-Colorado Springs), was dubbed the “paper airplane” measure after Democrats deemed the firefighting fleet was not a high funding priority. The governor remained silent, refusing to take a decisive leadership role in the plan.

The state spent more than $40 million last year fighting fires over 300 days that included the Lower North Fork Fire near Evergreen, Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs, the High Park Fire west of Fort Collins, the Weber Fire near Durango and The Little Sand Fire near Pagosa Springs. The fires destroyed more than 550 homes, dozens of structures and killed three people in 2012.

This year (2013), the state legislature passed measures that included tax incentives for fire mitigation efforts by property owners and thinning forests of trees damaged by pine beetles.

Funding for SB 245 was rejected by both the Senate and House appropriation committees (in 2012).

The “paper airplane” measure – without funding – was quietly signed into law by Hickenlooper.

“(This) is just window dressing and patting ourselves on the back, saying ‘Woo-hoo! we care,’ but not enough to actually do something,” said Sen. Scott Renfroe (R-Greeley). “It’s appalling.”

Read more: http://thecoloradoobserver.com/2013/06/black-forest-tragedy-sparks-debate-over-colorado-firefighting-air-fleet/

otisptoadwater wrote: Source? I don't need no stinking source...

So you admit that you can't substantiate that "Various officials of the State Government knew of the high potential for wild fires during their 2012 legislative session..."

Thanks for your honesty. I knew it was a lie.

Yeah, all lies and blue smoke. There's no reason that SB 245 was drafted and submitted to the Colorado Legislature in their 2012 session. A couple of people just thought it would be cool for Colorado to have it's own fleet of tanker aircraft to fly around in case a small grass fire broke out somewhere and the state decided to put it out instead of waiting for the Feds to do it instead.