Senate District 18

Rollie Heath–Democrat

No IOUs: For Heath, most of the issues facing Colorado can be traced to a need to adequately fund the core functions of government, most importantly for education. With Colorado having fallen to last place in per-pupil funding, he says the state risks continuing its “downward spiral” if lawmakers don’t return to the voters and make the case for more revenue. The state of educational funding directly impacts other areas of Colorado, like jobs and the economy, he says. “The key to economic development,” he says, “is an educated work force.”

Accomplishments: Although it was defeated, Heath is proud of his Proposition 103, which would have done what he says still needs doing—raising taxes to fund education. He says he’s hopeful that anti-tax Tea Partiers are not representative of most voters who will see the urgency if and when something similar is proposed.

Barry Thoma–Republican

nomorenonsense18.com

No interview.

YS Endorsement: Rollie Heath

No one likes taxes, but no one likes being in last place in per-pupil funding. Heath gets our endorsement because he wasn’t afraid to be unpopular by strongly endorsing a tax to fund our schools. We’re confident that if anything similar is proposed in the future, Heath will continue to be as fearless in endorsing it as he was in the past.