Dave Scheel stands with his .38 Smith and Wesson strapped to his hip at Valley Gun in Monte Vista on Feb. 28. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)
Throughout the 2013 legislative session, we have done our best to fight for the interests of our constituents from the Western Slope and Eastern Plains. It hasn't been easy. Democratic legislators have crafted many urban-centered policies and forced them down the throats of rural Coloradans. In response, we've made an effort to let our constituents know about the attack on rural Colorado going on at the State Capitol.
Some see our complaints as nothing more than a political move meant to divide Coloradans, but make no mistake: The Democrats' assault on rural Colorado is as real as the paper their bills are printed on.
Our culture, our pocket books, and our economy are being challenged.
Take the gun bills, for example. Limiting magazine sizes or extending background checks may not seem like a huge step to those who live in Denver, which already has pretty restrictive gun laws. But in rural areas, a gun is as common a sight as a pickup truck. Most of us learned to shoot before we were 10 years old. Guns are an integral part of the culture of rural Colorado; an attack on guns is an attack on that culture.
And there's a reason guns have such cultural significance. Someone who makes their living selling livestock needs to be able to defend their animals from coyotes and other predators. Someone who lives an hour away from the nearest police station needs to be able to ward off home intruders. The urban legislators spearheading the gun bills don't face these problems or even think about them.
Several oil and gas bills also found their way to the Senate this year. Measures like House Bill 1269 and HB 1316 would have placed further burdens on Colorado's oil and gas industry.
Job growth will be severely curtailed by further restricting the oil and gas industry, one of the biggest employers in rural Colorado. The more regulations the legislature places on the industry, the more jobs Colorado will lose. Weld County, for instance, is dependent on its booming oil businesses; if those companies fail or are forced to move, everyone in the county suffers.
Even the bills that purportedly help rural Colorado end up hurting its residents. The sponsors of Senate Bill 213, a school finance act, claimed their bill provided much-needed funding to rural schools. It does nothing of the sort and, by pressuring school districts to increase their mill levy, may raise local property taxes.
The biggest insult to rural Coloradans is SB 252, which would require rural areas to obtain 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020, a 100 percent increase. Republicans in the House have referred to SB 252 as "radical and costly." We agree.
The bill would drastically raise electricity rates for rural Coloradans. Higher energy costs may not seem like a huge inconvenience when you're paying to power your house or apartment, but when you need to water your fields with center-pivot sprinklers that use about between $12,000 and $18,000 of electricity per field, per year, a rate increase is a grave concern. SB 252 will cost the average farm family about $16,000 per year.
It's not just the farms that would be affected. All told, SB 252 would take more than $1 million out of rural Colorado's classrooms. They'll have to cut programs and fire teachers just to keep the lights on. Rural electric co-ops would be hurt irreparably by this bill. Their costs would skyrocket, and a cost increase for rural electric co-ops means a cost increase for rural Coloradans.
Gov. John Hickenloooper and his allies have attacked our culture, safety, pocket books and economy. Everything we've seen this year has convinced us that urban legislators simply don't understand the concerns of rural Colorado. They should stop plowing over rural opposition to their ideology and leave our constituents alone.
Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, represents Cheyenne, Elbert, Kit Carson, Lincoln, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and Yuma counties. Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, represents Mesa County. Contributing to this commentary was Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, who repre- sents Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, Montrose, Ouray, San Juan and San Miguel counties.