Michael Brown Show, Greg Brophy, March 10, 2014

Station:   KHOW, 630 AM

Show:      Michael Brown Show

Guests:    Brophy

Link:        http://www.khow.com/media/podcast-the-michael-brown-show-michaelbrown/

Date:       March 10, 2014

Topics:     Wray Farmer, Colorado State University, University of Colorado, Illegal immigrants, ASSET, In-state Tuition, Prius, Guns, Second Amendment, Nullification, Commons Core Standards, Education, Transportation, Interstate 70 (I-70), Commodity Prices, Regulations, Income Taxes, Sales Tax, Property Taxes, Tax Reform, Education Reform, Renewable Energy Mandates, Senate Bill 252 (SB-13-252), Energy costs, Outside Groups, Political Action Committees (PACs), Fundraising, Republican Primary, Opportunity, Negative Factor, Data Collection, Debt, Deficit, Entitlement Reform, Liar Loans, Mortgages, Asset Test, Ballot Initiatives, Marijuana Revenue, Beauprez, Tancredo, Kopp, House, Gessler,, Governor Hickenlooper, Senate President Morgan Carroll, Gay Marriage, Social Issues, Abortion, Death Penalty, Judicial Appointments

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[the following are notes from an interview.  All portions are paraphrased from the questions and responses between the host and the guest.]

 

HOST MICHAEL BROWN:   Welcome.  People know who, others really know you, others just know your name.  Who are you?

COLORADO STATE SENATOR & REPUBLICAN GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE, GREG BROPHY:

  • Farmer from Wray
    • Spent part of life managing really big farms for absentee owners
    • I’ve been growing watermelons since I was 9
    • 4thgeneration family farmer
      • Running the family farm since 1992
  • Citizen legislator
  • Married
    • to Angela almost 24 years
    • 3 kids
  • Cyclist – love to ride my bike, biggest passion, all over CO
  • Not a golfer
  • I will shoot guns every chance I get on the farm, not in Wray where we live
  • Drive a Prius
  • Graduate of CSU – Animal sciences

BROWN:   How is it being a farmer in this economy?

BROPHY:

  • Best year ever last year—hitting it out of the park with high commodity prices
    • That’s why I can run for gov
  • Now, as with all commodities cycles
    • Prices down
    • Input up
    • Cost of production is higher than ever
    • This summer will be more challenging than ever to make money

BROWN:   I have my own theory about why inputs have gone up… why do you think?

BROPHY:

  • Combination
  • Party of cycle:  when suppliers know that prices of commodity is up, they can charge more
  • Fertilizer should be cheaper than it is right now
    • Its 3 or 4 times the price it should be
    • Main component is methane (natural gas) which is cheap
  • Other expenses are going up
    • Health insurance
    • Fuel
    • Personnel
    • Renewable energy mandates are causing electricity bills to rise
    • Herbicides — regulatory env , transportation,

BROWN:   I assume you would agree that costs are tied to government involvement and regulation.

BROPHY:

  • In part, of course

BROWN:   Energy?

BROPHY:

  • Energy is a huge one
  • Anything that causes a rise in gas or oil, we feel it immediately

BROWN:   Windmills on farms… energy source du jour…. Do you have any on your farm?

BROPHY:

  • We have a water pump windmill, of course,
  • But as soon as there isn’t any more wind, they’re useless

BROWN:   I ask b/c the leg passed that renewable energy source mandate. Do you agree with that?

BROPHY:

  • No
  • I vote against that almost all of the time
  • I prefer that the market what type of electricity we are using
  • You can buy wind energy if you want… that’s always been the case.
  • And wind energy is marginally affordable, esp. when you pair it up with gas to make it reliable

BROWN:   But you get that these mandates affect prices?

BROPHY:

  • We think that SB252 is going to drive up cost of electricity by 10-12%
  • You know center pivots sprinklers— each has associated power bill of $15,000
    • Most farms have multiple, 6-10
    • So that increase is significant.
    • And they can’t pass that cost on to anyone
  • Which is why I’m running for governor

BROWN:   There’s something that happens in the human brain when you decide to run.  What was that moment for you?

BROPHY:

  • The extreme leg session at 2013
  • No one was making the points as well as I was
    • We’re in the fight all the time
    • We were all fighting
    • But I was making the points most effectively
    • I was on TV and Radio most
    • We don’t have a very deep bench of Republicans here in CO
      • We have Cory Gardner
      • We have Tipton
      • I feel like a double A player jumping to the major leagues
  • I look around and don’t see anyone that has the tools to govern and win the race

BROWN:   What makes you think you can win… I don’t want to hear about the prius and that campaign garbage.

BROPHY:

  • Primary:  I’ll put together a coalition of:
    • rural ppl
    • Gun guys
    • And people who are tired of losing
      • We’ve been losing for a decade
      • Tired of running people who can’t win

BROWN:   Why can we not win?  Set aside Dan Maes (fiasco)

BROPHY:

  • Clearly we aren’t running someone who appeals to the unaffiliated voter
  • That cross-cultural appeal
  • Beyond just speaking to Republicans
    • I can hold the Republican base together without any trouble
      • I’m pro-life
      • Pro guns
      • Low taxes
      • Less regulation
      • Smaller government
  • Also have to appeal to middle
    • Experience does that—working on the things that matter, like
      • Education—so critically important
        • I’m the only one running for gov. that knows education across this state
        • Choice and competition are important
          • All Rs understand that
          • But it’s a front range thing
          • But what good is competition and choice In Kit Carson, where there’s only one school with few kids (130) and the next nearest elementary school is 30 miles away
          • I’m the only one who gets that.
    • Part of it is those Intangibles that you don’t want to hear about
      • Prius driving
      • Cycle riding
      • Gun-toting
      • Farmer
      • Has cross cultural appeal

BROWN:   If education is one of those cross-over issues… that can bring coalition together, more money?

BROPHY:

  • Not about more money
  • But keeping promises to them relative to what they thought they would have
    • Negative factor
    • Bring funding back to a level
      • that’s achievable for leg
      • And practical to them at CFO and Supt
    • I don’t want them focused all the time on the budget.
      • Instead, I want them concentrating on teacher effectiveness
      • Hiring best teachers they can find
      • Parent engagement

BROWN:   @11:00 back to education.  I’m a supporter. Tamara was an educator for 30+ years before she retired.  I could figure out how to be more efficient and effective with the money they HAVE, without increasing funding.  Are you one of those candidates?  Or do you believe in increasing $$

BROPHY:

  • Both
  • I think we need to fund at the levels when Hick came to gov’s office
    • Not a lot more than that
    • We’ve reduced ed. Spending by 2% in Hicks term
    • Entitlements have increased by 67%
    • 76 million
      • Not tremendous amounts of money
      • With adjustment for inflation and population growth
      • 830,000 kids K-12 now, as compared to 800,000
  • Keep a level playing field
  • Then turn them lose
    • Let them run their schools
    • Without us telling them how to do it
    • Kick Common Core out of CO
    • We don’t need to replace it with Denver-based Common Core
  • You know the beauty of Charters?
    • Run by parents and school for the benefit of the kids
    • That’s how you get the best out of everybody
    • It’s like free market
      • Individuals acting in their own Self interests
      • Is better than central planners
      • We’ve been doing central planning for too long – let’s do this differently
    • Let’s give them an adequate amount of money
      • Not a whole bunch more than they have now
      • And turn them lose
      • And say, “you guys go run your school in a way that benefits you, your students and your community
      • And I’ll watch over your shoulder from the state capitol and give help if you’re not up to standard

BROWN:   As gov. with R House and R Senate, how do you practically go about doing that? Isn’t there an inherent almost institutional desire by state government to tell schools and districts how to spend the money?

BROPHY:

  • Of course there is
  • But when you have a governor leading the way and not hiding under his desk
    • Go to the Republicans, and say, don’t you believe in the free market
    • Don’t you believe that millions of individuals acting in their own self-interests give us the best possible outcomes

BROWN:   I’m not sure all Republicans think that.

BROPHY:

  • When you run for office, you get asked these questions, and you have to think about what you believe and why you believe it
  • Not like Hick who was coronated – you have to earn your seat
  • Every R running claims to believe the power of the free market.  I’m going to test them and see if that’s true
  • I think we will

BROWN:   What do you do with existing statute?  Co dept. of Education.  How do you empower local school districts?

BROPHY:

  • You just change some statute – that’s easy – just get it done
  • Then empower the locals to do this
  • I want to replace paper pushers at CDE, that have been compiling all the reports that no one looks at, and replace them with trainers for teacher effectiveness and train effective administrators
  • It’s not that hard
  • Charters are successful because everybody that’s there has bought into it.
    •  They know they control it.
    • If you don’t control it, you don’t care about it
    • Nobody washes a rental car

BROWN:   I can apply that to the Legislature. They don’t want to lose control.  They don’t want to be just a pass-through of money.  I’m trying to nail you down about how you truly return effective local control to local school boards.

BROPHY:

  • As gov. you lead the legislature to do that.
    • You say this is what you’re going to do
    • And if you don’t do this, then we’re going to have all kinds of problems with everything else you want to do.

BROWN:   Most local school boards – do they really want control?  Or do they just want to take the money and do what they’re told?

BROPHY:

  • A little bit of both I’m sure
  • It’s human nature
  • But if you give people opportunity to take charge of what it is they’re supposed to be in charge of, you’d be surprised how much better they perform

BROWN:   You mentioned Common Core.  Tell me what you know.

BROPHY:

  • Centralized planning from central government
  • Data collection
    • Some of that is important
  • Passing a set of federal standards from the fed level through all school
  • It’s Obamacare over education

BROWN:   Do you believe in nullification?

BROPHY:

  • Yes

BROWN:   Would you be willing to go so far as to take that step?

BROPHY:

  • Yes
  • I think we need to
  • It’s time
  • DC is broke
  • It doesn’t even function anymore
  • And They have a  $17.5 T debt
  • At some point we have to rise up and take control of our own situation

BROWN:   Would you be willing to nullify something like Common Core?

BROPHY:

  • Yes

BROWN:   Even if it meant losing Department of Education money?

BROPHY:

  • Yes

BROWN:   Seriously?

BROPHY:

  • Yes
  • We’re going to save this money when we do entitlement reform anyway.

BROWN:   Entitlement reform:  where does CO stand in terms of what we spend on the social safety net?

BROPHY:

  • I said at the beginning, Hick has expanded spending of entitlements by 67%
    • I call it the expansion of Obamacare
    • 800,000,000 dollars

BROWN:   Mostly Medicaid?

BROPHY:

  • That’s mostly Medicaid
  • Expansion of every gov. program to pay for healthcare

BROWN:   Which after next year, we have to front the money?

BROPHY:

  • We’ve got two more years
  • We got a 3 year cornhusker kickback deal that he also took
  •  I think it’s going to cost another Billion dollars
  • We don’t have that money
  • It’s going to come out of education, because it’s the only place that’s left to cut money out of in CO
    • Probably higher education  first
    • And then k-12
  • We can reform this.
    • There’s no Asset test
      • I mean, You could win the lottery tomorrow and still keep your whole family on every welfare program that’s out there
      • Remember back in ’05 you could get a mortgage with stated income
        • We called ‘em liar loans
      • You can sign up for entitlements without proving your income
        • No asset test
        • No way to ensure that you’re not making more money than you claim
        • Take your biz, convert it to an LLC, pay yourself 2500 a month out of the LLC, all of a sudden you’re only making 30,000 a year, and you’ll qualify for every program there is.

BROWN:   How are you going to convince legislators to do this?

BROPHY:

  • If a R legislature, this will be as easy as pie
  • If it’s a D legislature, I’ll just show them the math.
    • You want to save education – let’s save education
    • We’ve got to reform these entitlement programs
    • We’ll keep a safety net, we just won’t let you stay there forever.

BROWN:   @19:15 – would you be in favor of repealing CO state income tax? And revising or revamping or doing something with property and sales tax.

BROPHY:

  • Yeah, as long as it wasn’t a net tax increase.
  • Anything that simplifies our taxes is a good idea
  • I hate property taxes
    • MB:  I do too, but I hate income taxes too
    • Taxing someone’s work – and any time you tax something you get less of it
      • Do you want people to work more or not?
  • 4.63 income tax – just lowering it doesn’t have that much effect
  • But take it to 0 and replacing it with something that isn’t so punitive against work

BROWN:   Well, I’m just thinking of being able to compete with places like Texas with no income tax.

BROPHY:

  • Yeah, that’s what’s happening in this great experiment in democracy that we have
  • All those Red southern states are lowering taxes and regulatory burden
    • To attract business
    • Texas is growing – all the jobs in the country are down in  TX
    • And the Blue states are getting left behind
    • So that’s a question CO, do you want to be a Red state that’s growing? Or a blue state that’s shrinking

BROWN:   Why don’t we ever get anything like that done?  Why don’t we actually do something that makes us competitive with other states?

BROPHY:

  • It’s easier said than done, esp. in CO
    • Argument that that’s a change in tax policy that might have net effect on revenue
    • So it might require an initiative of voters
    • Special interests that would be gouged
      • That’s what’s so complicated
      • 10 spec interests would be hurt and would have every incentive to stop it,
      • and 3M ppl that would benefit a little might not have the incentive to understand that side of the equation and vote appropriately

BROWN:   How do you get people, as a leader, to frankly start thinking about the people of CO and the economy as a whole, instead of special interests that might be concerned that they might get pinged a little bit?

BROPHY:

  • Reagan and Thatcher:  1st win hearts & minds of people and then go get the votes from Parliament
  • We have low tax burden in CO anyway – all in, it’s fairly low
  • If we have a favorable regulatory environment
    • Dept. of resources
    • Dept. of Health (state EPA)
    • If we have those guys pushing back against the federal gov. and helping biz get started here in CO instead of hindering it like it has been under Hick and Ritter
    • That may be enough to grow our economy anyway

BROWN:   But if you get elected, gov. appointing leadership doesn’t always change how the bureaucracy work.  How do you effect change with the bureaucrats?

BROPHY:

  • Over the past couple years, we made a change to our state constitution that allows the governor to appoint deeper down the change
  • I’m going to appoint 2nd and 3rdtier people with marching orders to change the very nature of the bureaucracy that you oversee
    • We want to encourage mining in the mountains and western CO
    • We want encourage O&G activity
    • We want to use these state agencies to push back the EPA and Fish & Wildlife Service
    • Instead of saying “yes, sir—how many times to you want me to bash the people of CO on your behalf
    • We have to fight back

BROWN:   How much money is it going to take to effectively campaign against Hick…. In 2010 he raised $5M

BROPHY:

  • Sky is the limit on how much can be spent by outside groups in CO
    • We saw $30M spent on each side of the US Senate race that was close in 2010
    • We could see that much spent again
    • Depends on what the polls say
  • If I’m the nominee, I actually think I can beat Hick like a drum
    • Have a 10 point lead going into Oct. which trims back how much money will be spent
    • Once past the primary it will be a lot easier to raise money – $3.5M or so for the R side – adequate amount to raise name ID
    • Lots of ballot initiative that will spend 10s of millions of dollars
      • A lot of TV time will be bought up
      • It might be hard to purchase air time

BROWN:   Why are you confident that you can raise enough money to campaign effectively against this incumbent – the unions and those special interests groups, –they’ll drop every barrel of money they can to keep you out of the gubernatorial seat.

BROPHY:

  • But tide is in our favor this time
  • Hick is upside down something terrible
  • Average voter thinks the Dems went too far
  • And that Hick needs to be replaced
  • We just need an adequate amount to get my name out there
    • Who I am
    • Why I’m the guy that they can trust
    • To get education and transportation and economy back on track

BROWN:   How much money do you think that is?

BROPHY:

  • $3.5M from candidate
  • $5-10M from outside groups

BROWN:   Are you on track to do that?

BROPHY:

  • We’re not raising hardly anything in the primary
  • Such a crowded field
  • Once April 12 is over, we’ll see one candidate come through the assembly
  • That one person will hopefully be me
    • I see a pathway in that direction
    • Then all currently sitting on the sidelines will come into the race heavy to fund Rs

BROWN:   Illegal Immigration:  I know that immigration is a federal issue.  But CO legislation like ASSET  — what is your position on illegal aliens in the state of CO?

BROPHY:

  •  I don’t think that illegal aliens or any immigrants should be on any of our welfare programs
  • I did vote for ASSET bill
    • b/c I came to value education so much
    • I’ve come to realize the kids we’re talking about are staying in CO
    • Those that have an aptitude to go to college will be better off and the state will be better off
    • It changes the course of their families forever

BROWN:   Why is that fair to someone who wants to come to CO from KS and might have to pay out of state tuition.  How is it fair, Greg?

BROPHY:

  • Yeah, push back on that – there are good arguments against that
  • The answer is:  the kids that live in KS get instate tuition there where they live

BROWN:   But don’t you think CU is better than KS?

BROPHY:

  • Probably
  • CSU is better than KS any day

BROWN:   Why give any special favor whatsoever?  I get that these kids aren’t here of their own volition.  But they, now 18 year old, can go through the process to become citizens and then work their way into the system.

BROPHY:

  • Their families have been living in CO and paying taxes, just like other poor families

BROWN:   We don’t know – underground economy they don’t pay taxes.

BROPHY:

  • They’re paying sales taxes and property taxes
  • Often the parents have residency – they just didn’t take time to get legal residency for the kids
  • I think the state’s better off if they get an education
  • I just believe that much in education.
  • I’m the first in my family to go to college.  It changes the course of the whole family forever
    • Even nephews and nieces are impacted

BROWN:   Is there anything that incentivizes them to stay in CO and not go to NM or TX… the ideal student … what if they leave?  How is that fair to those who are here legally, lived here their whole lives, came here the legal way?

BROPHY:

  • They’re just kids,
  • How is it fair to sit next to every other kid, K-12grade, and their classmates can go to college and they can’t

BROWN:   Why single out illegals? As opposed to anybody else?

BROPHY:

  • They’re the only ones we’re talking about that actually graduated from our schools
  • If you’re in the military–

BROWN:   What about the poor kid who finally graduate?

BROPHY:

  • They get instate tuition too
  • They’re not competing against each other
  • There’s nobody being turned away from the schools if they can get in

BROWN:   Some of the money poor kids pay goes to subsidize the instate tuition of illegals.

BROPHY:

  • A little bit
  • Right, there’s good arguments against it,
  • I just think that the kids will be better off and the state will be better off
  • Total package
  • You can’t say I haven’t thought about this, you can’t say I don’t care about ed or that I don’t value education.

BROWN:   @ 31:00  Tell me your position on the death penalty.

BROPHY:

  • I’m in favor of the death penalty
  • I think we should honor what the jury and all the courts in the land have said with regard to Nathan Dunlap
  • I don’t weasel on anything
  • I do the right thing almost every time

BROWN:   Social issues (i.e. gay marriage & abortion) do you think Republicans focus too much on those.  Do you think it’s necessary to campaign on those?

BROPHY:

  • I think you need to be clear on your position
    • I’m pro-life
    • I’m a live and let live kind of guy—
      • If 2 guys want to live together
      • I think marriage is an institution beyond the authority of the government
      • Gov. can’t mess with it
  • Media is fascinated with this
  • Election will be settled on the issues
    • Best vision for Education reform
    • Economic issues
    • A guy that has a plan to get our roads built.
      • No more studying the I-70 corridor
      • Let’s just get it fixed
      • Let’s just get it done
      • Like Owens did
  • Unless you’re a person who doesn’t know how to talk about these things, and you let the media drag you into endless discussions about social issues

BROWN:   What do you want to do with Marijuana revenue?

BROPHY:

  • I think it’s just General fund revenue
  • I would put some money into youth prevention – that’s our biggest risk… we have to keep it away from our kids
  • Other than that, let it go into the big pot

BROWN:   Among all the candidates, will you support any that possibly wins the primary?

BROPHY:

  • Yes

BROWN:   Why should people vote for you?

BROPHY:

  • I’m the one running who combines the experience of running own biz,
  • With experience fighting for things that matter
    • I have that cross-cultural appeal to win unaffiliated voters
    • I have the experience that they’re looking for – what we didn’t have in 2010
    • Such an exciting election cycle – so many people running
    • We have the choice as a party to re brand ourselves
      • Save the country from the extreme fringe of the Dem party
        • Represented by Hick and Morgan Carroll
    • Are we going to be this new Grand Opportunity Party with fresh faces and ideas
    • Or the old GOP of the mid-2000s
      • The party that got us into this mess
      • The party that was roundly dismissed by voters of Co
        • Represented by Tancredo
        • And Bob Beauprez
  • And I think instead, we go with the guy who is live and let live, semi-libertarian and conservative
    • Who appeals to young people
    • To voters that want liberty and opportunity
    • Stay away from the establishment candidates
    • Go with a guy who can actually appeal to the middle of CO and hold the base together because they know they can count on me
    • That’s why I’m running
  • Greg Brophy dot com