Anti-taxpayers groups are deep into the retreads. It’s all they’ve got. And no retread campaign would be complete without Colorado-basher Kristi Hargrove.
It was nice to see Kristi back in Maine for another go at the taxpayers. Yesterday she attended a “rally” in Portland sponsored by Planned Parenthood and an organization called the “Maine Women’s Lobby”. From the news footage, approximately seven women listened to Hargrove bash Maine’s taxpayers and her own state of Colorado. Glad to know that yet another bunch of radicals has it in for Maine’s taxpayers.
Both organizations are part of a coalition called “Engage Maine”, which is a coven of leftist organizations that includes such luminaries as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is ACORN’s alter ego. Today, she attended a rally of the Maine Education Association, which has already denounced TABOR as a “slasher film”.
But who is Hargrove? According her own bio, she claims to be a Republican (how convenient) and a typical PTA mom. But this “typical PTA mom” just happens to take her show on the road to any state where the taxpayers are restless. She’s sort of like Iris Lav, come to think of it.
And as it turns out, there is a connection between Iris and Kristi. Kristi appears in CBPP’s home movie about Colorado’s TABOR-induced ruination. She was here in Maine to repeat the same whoppers as in the movie. A reporter from Channel 8 tracked down Martin Sheehan of the Maine Heritage Policy Center for a reaction. But what reaction could any normal person have to blatant whoppers? According to a report on the CBPP movie by Colorado’s Fiscal Policy Center:
According to the video, parents now pay for school operations that state tax dollars previously covered, and children must attend school with the heat off. Yet the proportion of state spending on K-12 education is at an all-time high. In 1992, the year before TABOR took effect, the state of Colorado paid 45 percent of the per-pupil funding for public schools. Today, 14 years later, the state’s share has grown to 62 percent. From 2000-01 to 2005-06, Colorado’s overall per-pupil contribution in state dollars to K-12 education (including all education funds, not just per-pupil funding under the School Finance Act) has increased by 28 percent—or by 16 percent, after adjusting for inflation.
The voiceover on the video says, “Parents have to pay for basic things,” while the camera pans over textbooks. Crested Butte parent and state Parent Teacher Association (PTA) board member Kristi Hargrove says, “Our PTA is buying all the textbooks for the school.” The state requires districts to budget a minimum of $172 per pupil per year for textbooks, library books, periodicals, and other instructional supplies and materials. The law mandates that figure to increase every year and that the money be spent on nothing else. The real question is: How does Ms. Hargrove’s school avoid the law and not buy textbooks?
And dear Kristi is right here in Maine telling the same whoppers: that kids don’t have books and sit in unheated classrooms.
She’s part of the franchise.
