Recently, I was fortunate enough to be selected as a participant in Governor John Hickenlooper’s TBD Colorado initiative. Fittingly, TBD stands for “To Be Determined”. According to their website, “TBD Colorado is a nonpartisan, collaborative effort designed to create informed and constructive conversations among Coloradans about some of the biggest issues facing the state.”
I attended my first regional meeting of TBD Colorado last Monday. I hear they were looking for participants who want to work for the greater good of the state, rather than for only specific special interests, and that they they are holding similar meetings in 40 regions throughout the state.
In addition to hosting community meetings throughout Colorado in April and May, TBD Colorado will host several public summits in June. It is important to note that no state dollars will be spent on TBD Colorado.
TBD Colorado will focus on important issues in the state including Education (both K-12 and higher education), Health, Transportation, the State Budget, and State Workforce/Talent.
Governor Hickenlooper initiated this effort because of his recognition that resolving many of the difficult challenges facing Colorado requires broad civic engagement.
And this is where credit needs to be offered.
Former administrations have had similar information available to them, yet each elected to leave Colorado’s most significant issues for the next administration to tackle. We see similar ambivalence at the Federal level surrounding complex issues such as Social Security and Medicaid.
Governor Hickenlooper could have elected to do the same – and he didn’t. Rather, he decided to take the issues to the public. This effort will hopefully educate the public using a bipartisan approach, and to view the issues of the state using facts rather than sentiment. After attending the first meeting, it is easy to recognize that, given our current path in Colorado, none of the issues have a very bright future. This presents Colorado with a puzzle worthy of our attention.
I applaud the Governor for looking forward, and for his willingness to take on such a challenge. Left unchecked, we will all face the fallout of these issues.
Then again, what do I know?
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