Western Slope water and Southeastern/Eastern Plains - all on McInnis' chopping block?

More terrifying threats from McInnis as reflected in the Montrose Daily Press:


"McInnis vows his first trip after he’s elected governor will be to the Pentagon to tell its leadership that Colorado is back in play and wants to expand on its established military environment, which includes a number of installations besides the obvious ones most know in Colorado Springs."

Besides condemning all of us in the southeast, and the thousands of jobs we support, McInnis will undoubtedly also be going after Western Slope water and agriculture as well.  Urban areas that McInnis wants to see grow on the Front Range are pushing just that already.


From the Pueblo Chieftain article 'Gunnison: Should state study drying up cities?':
Front range group "has urged the state to look at drying up Western Slope agriculture as a strategy [for water supply] along with Eastern Plains reduction in farmland"
and
"Gunnison turned that around, saying the state is hardly looking at the real problem:  Increased urban demand" .

Along with the attitude that the Southeast corner of the state is apparently completely unimportant, if McInnis is elected we now know we also run the risk of losing all of our state's agriculture.  East and West.

Got Food?

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Colorado Springs HAS NOT lost military jobs like some would want you to believe

Claims made by gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis during a campaign event in Windsor on January 27^th are more than just misleading.  McInnis reportedly told attendees in Windsor that military basing decisions during the past year have cost thousands of jobs in Colorado, and that a bi-partisan bill blocking the sale of state-owned lands to the Army is to blame. [http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010100128007 ]

McInnis was referring to Department of Defense, Army, and Air Force decisions during the past year, which have affected Colorado Springs and other military locations nationwide.  For example, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates canceled the planned creation of three additional brigades, which would have been part of the Future Combat Systems. [ http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0609/061009cdam2.htm ]. 

One of those brigades had supposedly been slated for Fort Carson yet last April the Army decided to relocate Division West headquarters to Fort Hood in Texas, which resulted in the relocation of about 300 hundred people, [http://www.army.mil/-newsreleases/2009/04/03/19239-force-structure-actions-at-fort-hood-and-other-installations/ ] and in May the Air Force decided to locate its Cyber Command in San Antonio, Texas, rather than in Colorado Springs. [http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2009/05/11/daily38.html ]

McInnis tried to imply that those decisions were prompted by a bill enacted last summer with broad bi-partisan support but his implications don’t hold water.   He was referring to HB1317, which blocks the state from selling land to the Army for the expansion of Pinon Canyon.  But McInnis is wrong on two important points:

1. HB 1317 was signed into law in June, after the basing and troop-strength decisions had been made, so it is unlikely that it had any influence upon those decisions. And
2. the basing decisions did not cause a loss of jobs in Colorado. In fact, the military population has grown in the state. For example, during the past four years Fort Carson has experienced its largest population growth since it was founded in 1942  [http://search.carson.army.mil/pao-news/press-releases/]

Published reports in fact indicate that Fort Carson has actually grown by several thousand troops, and that the Army has received millions of dollars to fund new construction.  For instance, the base added 6,500 soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division headquarters and its 3,800-soldier 1st Brigade Combat Team [http://www.fortcarsonblog.com/2009/04/30/fort-carson-will-gain-a-division-headquarters-unit-this-summer-and-it-will-lose-one-too-post-officials-announced-friday/] 

According to Fred Crowley, senior economist at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, these additional troops created about 5,000 new jobs in Colorado Springs. [http://csbj.com/2009/07/02/military-spending-vital-to-springs-economy/]

So, McInnis’ claims are completely wrong and in fact Colorado has become ever more dependent upon the military and federal dollars.  However, the majority of true conservative Republicans as well as the majority of Democrats and Independents all over the country understand that throwing tax payer dollars at local economies does not resolve the economic downturn.  Instead it robs dollars from people and businesses that create stable productive private sector jobs. 

McInnis continues to spout non-truths and misconceptions, and if allowed he would nationalize land and steal jobs from the southeast Colorado economy.  His "job math" does not include the jobs he would destroy in southeast Colorado by expanding Pinon Canyon and tying those federal subsidized dollars to the military does not make them effective or necessary.  Our military should not be an economic tool for politicians and southeast Colorado shouldn’t be allowed to be sacrificed let alone because of some make believe scheme by Mr. McInnis.

Army says 'no expansion this year' (surprise)........

Fort Carson suggests that they are 'working on mending fences' and won't expand right now.  Yet, they also say that the Army may still need to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site someday.

While it may sound admirable at first, we need only consider that the Army CAN'T EXPAND THIS YEAR anyway because of the temporary spending ban renewal last month (December). 

This statement does nothing to offset the cloud of expansion that continues to hang over our heads though and for them to say 'we won't expand right now' seems to try to suggest it was somehow their idea. 

If the spending ban hadn't gone through last month we expect that Fort Carson would be talking about how fast they are going forward with expansion.

The Army says for now commanders are looking at how to best use the land they have [at PCMS] and we commend them for that.  However, it doesn't address the real need to evaluate the excess and underutilized testing and training ranges already owned by the DoD nationwide.  

We believe if an honest appraisal is done that these existing resources are more than adequate to achieve the Army's training goals and objectives relative to the troop strength and basing decisions at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs.  Without ANY expansion of Pinon Canyon - this year or ever.

Another Blog: Doug's Pilgrimage


AP Story links:

Houston Chron.com

Dallas Morning News

KRDO TV
Army Times
Denver Post
KOAA TV
Springs Gazette
NewsOK

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Scott McInnis' agendas

Stories showing Scott McInnis' true colors and agenda -

News5 :

"He also gave his support to an expansion of the Army's proposed Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site saying that his first official visit in office would be to the Pentagon to tell military planners that they have a friend in office in Colorado."

and he supports Douglas Bruce:
NewsChannel13
Fox21
DenverPost.com

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Scott McInnis tries a new guise - or should we say disguise......

Scott McInnis' disguises may fool some but not most that are looking/listening - wonder what he'll do/say next?

See rest of the story associated with the picture at ColoradoPols.com

Denver Direct on Pinon Canyon

Good blog entry/section on Pinon Canyon at Denver Direct . com


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