Along with the always added less efficient and more wasteful.

Did you look at your ballot that arrived in your mailbox this past week? Seriously, there are 45 different candidates, judges, initiatives or power and tax grabs apparently in serious need of your vote to get implemented into Colorado law or lawmaking on top of the 500 to 1,000 new laws these hacks already put into place legislatively in the past year.

I never know the exact amount of laws passed each year, because they introduce and pass so many pieces of legislation each session, most of them in what voters are required to believe are desperate attempts to fix what’s wrong with all of the laws these “do-gooders” passed over many preceding sessions. And let’s just say since Pontius Polis and the democrats have been in the almost “super-majority,” the number has increased exponentially and hasn’t helped most voters a scintilla.

It hasn’t brought spending down a penny, either.

And just in case you haven’t perused your ballot, you could just open the other ballot envelope addressed to the voter who hasn’t lived in your house since well before you moved in that Jena refused to take off the rolls. Stop it, you know damned well it’s still happening, even if your sources are the “letters from LaVista Correctional Facility” by Mesa County Martyr Tina Peters, even though she’s never found an ounce of fraud.

Just also note that none of the above changes the fact that our ballot is too big, and all it will do is grow government and your tax bill. Because if it’s on the ballot, it means one of two things: A tax increase or something for the state to spend more money on that always brings about, you guessed it, another tax increase on the next ballot. Oh, all with a TABOR workaround.

And while this ballot might have more ovals to fill in, it really doesn’t make it any harder for me to fill out. And I know this is going to sound sophomoric to many who are reading, but I already have eliminated a good percentage of ovals before I do the “map unfolding” (seriously, it’s a trifold this year) of all things so important in “moving Colorado forward.”

Yes, that’s sarcasm. I fully realize Colorado is heading in only one direction, and doing so with a busted transmission. I’m just waiting for it to fall off, all while taking full advantage of easy columns to pen.

How do I accomplish such a vetting you ask? Simple. I eliminate all democrat ovals and yes ovals which increase taxes or work around TABOR. I also never vote to retain a judge, mainly because I never want to see one at their place of business ever again. That is until I attend a battle over my will, and then I’ll only be there in spirit and humor. Trust me, the judge who’s presiding will thank me for being there only in spirit. After all, my humor is an acquired taste, and judges don’t seem to share it.

Then again, many, not just judges, aren’t thanking me for writing my humor on this topic today in person. But if it makes you think, or in this case take a closer look at your “War and Peace”-sized ballot, I’ve done my job whether you like it or not.

But to some specifics on the ballot.

Now you may say I’m soft on crime with my attitude toward judges, because there is a measure on the ballot for tougher sentences for child traffickers. You’d be wrong. I absolutely want all child traffickers arrested and punished harshly. I just don’t think the state should need it to be a constitutional thing. Because if they can put it in, in time, someone elected will want to take it out. Also, why would any judge who cares about public safety or kids need a state law to require them to do something they should do to the “nth” degree for anyone guilty of such a crime?

Life in prison is not enough, and it should be the obvious sentence for these folks. We don’t need a law, and this being on the ballot just distracts. Let judges do their job without the state-mandated sentence. Something tells me if the judges were given autonomy, they’d be even harsher. But since they don’t exercise autonomy, I don’t vote for them.

Separation of powers is still a thing, no?

But what about rogue judges, Craig? Exactly. Let’s have more of them on the side of law and order. I don’t care what any political party or special-interest group thinks when it comes to criminal law. If it’s based on two tablets in Exodus, it’s got proper perspective to me.

As for other measures on the ballot, many of them should be in place with common sense, which means we shouldn’t need an amendment, because they are rights, or should or shouldn’t be done based, again, in common sense. But alas, politics isn’t overflowing in common sense any longer. For instance, even if something is voted and amended into our constitution, it really has little to no power. From the minute the vote is decided, the other side (and there is always another side in today’s politics) will be working on a workaround, lawsuit or they will just flat out ignore the laws they don’t like or support.

After all, they’ve been doing this on the federal level since before the ink dried on our Constitutional parchment. And most of what’s been written into nationwide constitutions since the original parchment dried hasn’t been good for the people. And we all instinctively know it.

So just to cover a couple of more “measures” on our junk-bond, AAA TripTik of a ballot (guessing I’ll have to get to a few more next column), let’s talk government underfunding. Let’s just put it this way: Our state has plenty of money. It just always spends more than it has on things it shouldn’t be doing, or worse, does very poorly. Which brings us to the latest “tax the rich” proposal along with – to NO ONE’s surprise – another tax increase for “education,” aka the latest payoff to the teacher’s unions.

Just say NO.

Again, our state has plenty of money. It’s just really bad or really good at laundering it. Depends on whether you’re on the receiving end of things. How else can an entity have increased spending almost 250 percent since 2000? To help, that’s going from about $12 Billion per year to over $35 Billion today. It’s beyond time we say no and leave TABOR alone.

Oh, and just in case our city and School District 51 think I’m leaving the tax increases they are asking for AGAIN alone, think again. This same rule of voting applies to you.

And it’s not because I hate kids (well, I do dislike more than a few) or don’t think education is important (although much of what we “teach” today isn’t) or don’t think our city should supply the people with quality and efficient services (just don’t sit in private rooms looking over architectural models of your grand visions for Grand Junction like you-know-who). The real problem here is if we keep giving you more money, you’ll keep asking for it. And before you scream “underfunding,” try living within your means. Your underfunding problem isn’t with the taxpayers; it’s with your overlords.

So, while I won’t tell you who or what to vote for, just make sure you make your vote count – and that the vote counted is just yours. That should give you some direction on what or who not to vote for. Because in today’s elections, it’s what or who you didn’t vote for that seems to matter more.

And saying that allows me to say that you can say, “I didn’t tell ya.”

In Truth and freedom.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com