Yesterday Governor Ritter spoke to a gathering of civic leaders, press, and a few ordinary citizens at the groundbreaking of a new $11,000,000 facility to house the Colorado Army National Guard and 1 Battalion of the 157th Infantry Regiment.
As a life-long financial analyst, I was mostly interested in the money in the deal. I heard an amusing story about that from Jim Stanko. Jim is a member of the Board of Veterans Affairs, a position to which he was appointed by Governor Ritter. Some of Colorado’s tobacco settlement money was set aside for Colorado’s veterans. Except there was no lockbox. Governors and legislators, in trying to balance the budget, try to get their hands on this money. Governor Owens raided the funds to balance his budget. Governor Ritter put it back. Then the Board of Veterans Affairs decided to put it to work so that it wasn’t there for raiding.
But they didn’t want it to disappear because the interest on the funds is used to do things like provide grants to local VFWs who provide transportation to veterans. So, they loaned it to the project that was breaking ground yesterday. The money is being used for a military-related purpose, and it will be tied up—hopefully until Colorado’s budget crisis is over.
Jim also told me that when he was appointed to the Board, Colorado spent about $0.99 per veteran annually. He said it is up to about $2.00 now, but that Colorado is still near the bottom of the barrel in providing support to vets and their families. So, guy from the Farmer’s Market, I now know that your complaint was well aimed, and I know who to talk to about it.
As a personal side note, I shook hands with two Republicans yesterday. Laura Bradford, who I know from the time that I worked at the Incubator Center, was warm and engaging, even though she knows I’m a Democrat. She joked that she thought she was the only Republican who did know who I was. Clearly Steve King didn’t recognize my name when I introduced myself to him. But then he read my name tag and immediately turned away. For the record, both Laura Bradford and Ray Scott have better handshakes than Steve King does. In the business world it is believed that you can learn a lot about a person by shaking his/her hand.
P.S. Laura, I hope everything goes well for your dad.
Homework
New Guard Facility Coming to Grand Junction
Board of Veteran's Affairs Website
As a life-long financial analyst, I was mostly interested in the money in the deal. I heard an amusing story about that from Jim Stanko. Jim is a member of the Board of Veterans Affairs, a position to which he was appointed by Governor Ritter. Some of Colorado’s tobacco settlement money was set aside for Colorado’s veterans. Except there was no lockbox. Governors and legislators, in trying to balance the budget, try to get their hands on this money. Governor Owens raided the funds to balance his budget. Governor Ritter put it back. Then the Board of Veterans Affairs decided to put it to work so that it wasn’t there for raiding.
But they didn’t want it to disappear because the interest on the funds is used to do things like provide grants to local VFWs who provide transportation to veterans. So, they loaned it to the project that was breaking ground yesterday. The money is being used for a military-related purpose, and it will be tied up—hopefully until Colorado’s budget crisis is over.
Jim also told me that when he was appointed to the Board, Colorado spent about $0.99 per veteran annually. He said it is up to about $2.00 now, but that Colorado is still near the bottom of the barrel in providing support to vets and their families. So, guy from the Farmer’s Market, I now know that your complaint was well aimed, and I know who to talk to about it.
As a personal side note, I shook hands with two Republicans yesterday. Laura Bradford, who I know from the time that I worked at the Incubator Center, was warm and engaging, even though she knows I’m a Democrat. She joked that she thought she was the only Republican who did know who I was. Clearly Steve King didn’t recognize my name when I introduced myself to him. But then he read my name tag and immediately turned away. For the record, both Laura Bradford and Ray Scott have better handshakes than Steve King does. In the business world it is believed that you can learn a lot about a person by shaking his/her hand.
P.S. Laura, I hope everything goes well for your dad.
Homework
New Guard Facility Coming to Grand Junction
Board of Veteran's Affairs Website
RSS Feed