AP Headline: 'Colorado Tax Defeat A Signal Of Voters' Sour Mood'

"Some thoughts on those angry voters. Ask parents of any two-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming . . . The voters had a temper tantrum last week."-- ABCs' Peter Jennings, November 14, 1994, explaining the Republican congressional victory.

Looks like the Associated Press has had its Peter Jennings temper-tantrum moment. AP's explanation, as per the headline it chose for its story, of the overwhelming, 30-point margin by which Colorado voters rejected a tax-raising referendum? Coloradans were in a "sour mood." More after the jump.

I remember when I lived in Colorado Springs, the "We need more money for Education" gang had not been able to get voters to vote for a school bond for something like 9-10 years.

So they decided to go the route of "we need every child to have access to a computer because OUR children are falling behind, blah, blah, blah (ever notice how they own the children in their minds?).

So they went for a $3 million, "one time" bond issue. I argued to my cohorts at work that their plan didn't make any sense when you read it, and that if approved, there wouldn't be a single new computer in those schools as a result of that money.

I was told that was ridiculous because any sensible person would realize that $3 million would buy all the computers needed.

The bond passed, the Education gang got their money, and everything went quiet.

About a year later, some intrepid newspaperman noticed that there wasn't a single new computer at any of the schools. He asked the Education gang "what's up?"

Their response was, "We couldn't just run out and buy computers, first we needed to hire people to administrate the program, we needed to hire people to write and administer the purchase and follow-on maintenance contracts, we needed to hire computer support people, and of course some new facility space was needed to house all those new people.

The newspaperman then asked, "So, when will the schools have new computers?"

The Education gang said, "Oh, there isn't enough money in this bond to buy the computers, we'll have to go back with a follow-on bond to address that!"

The newspaperman then asked, "Wait a minute, didn't you promise the voters that THIS ONE-TIME bond issue would be to purchase new computers for their schools?"

The Education gang, without skipping a beat, and totally without shame, answered, "We made it clear from the beginning that this was a multi-phased effort to provide our children with the kind of technology which will enable them to acquire good, high-paying jobs and live full productive lives." "If anyone did not understand our plan, then, of course, we're sorry, and we will strive to communicate it better when we ask for further bonds."

I moved out-of-state before the next "for the children" bond was pushed by the Education gang, so I don't know what happened. But by then, Colorado had been heavily Californicated by people who screwed up California and then moved to Colorado, so it probably passed easily.

Whether any new computers ever showed up is a question I still wonder about.

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