Colorado: Oregon

(Photo/Keith Bacongco, Flickr)

And to Poundstone, the change Colorado needs comes in the form of a ballot initiative she’s co-sponsoring that would drastically limit state revenue by slashing taxes and fees. The plan, which is making its way through the review process on its way to the 2010 ballot, stands in stark opposition to the stimulus-spending mantra coming out of Washington, D.C.

The Colorado initiative is alarming at least two state lawmakers who have examined it. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said the initiative would “end government as we know it.” And House Speaker Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, suggested it would move the state down the road to anarchy.

The percentage of Americans who call themselves Christians has fallen over the last two decades — although a sizable majority still consider themselves to be Christian. At the same time, those professing “no” religion has nearly doubled since 1990, according to a Trinity College survey released Monday, The Washington Post reports.

In Colorado, more than one in five respondents said they ascribed to no religion, the same percentage that identified themselves as Catholic in the state. Just less than half of Colorado’s residents said they were “other Christian,” and one in 25 said they held other religious beliefs. The group of nonbelievers was the only one to grow in every state since 1990.

Since November, when voters passed Colorado’s controversial Amendment 54, and the last day of December, when it became law, 54’s expanding implications have slowly come into focus, spurring heated arguments for and against it.

As a high-powered lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the amendment wends its way to court, detractors and supporters are pleading their cases in the court of public opinion, underlining the fact that the showdown over 54 is just the latest skirmish in a larger battle over the evolution of lawmaking at the ballot box instead of at the Legislature.

Critics of Amendment 54, including the attorneys who filed the suit against it last month, say its sprawling reach is a product of the sloppy approach its authors took in drafting it and of the inadequacies of the ballot-initiative process to make laws.

The latest draft of a comprehensive transportation funding bill being considered by Colorado lawmakers would impose a "road safety surcharge" of $23 a year on any vehicle that weighs between 2,000 and 5,000 pounds.

The proposed roads-funding measure increases the surcharge to $28 for vehicles that weigh between 5,000 and 10,000 pounds, to $37 a year for those between 10,000 and 16,000 pounds and to $39 for those over 16,000 pounds.

Owners of motorcycles and motorscooters would pay a $16 annual surcharge.

The draft bill also includes a daily $2 fee on rental-car transactions that would go into a fund for transportation improvements.