In case you missed it | Finally De-Bruced

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FINALLY DE-BRUCED

Douglas Bruce in jail? Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Bruce is the infamous Colorado Springs anti-tax crusader who brought us the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which has been blamed for strangling the state’s budget for years — even inhibiting Colorado’s ability to rebound from the recession.

He’s also the one who kicked a newspaper photographer at the state Capitol in January 2008 — during the morning prayer on the day he was sworn in as a state representative. As a result, he became the first legislator to be formally censured by the members of the House.

Yes, a real charmer. Only fitting that he was sentenced this week to 180 days in prison and six years of probation for … wait for it … tax evasion.

After sentencing, he had the gall to refer to himself as a “political prisoner.” In December, a jury convicted Bruce of tax evasion, filing a false tax return and attempting to influence a public servant, all of which are felonies. According to news reports, Bruce represented himself at trial, but attorney David Lane, who also represented Ward Churchill and the Fort Collins balloon boy’s father, represented Bruce at the Feb. 13 sentencing hearing.

Lane was quoted by the Denver Post as saying that Bruce was singled out:

“There are those … primarily in government, who view Doug Bruce as satanic.”

Well, that’s probably a bit strong. Maybe an unstable lunatic. Doug, enjoy your stay in one of our state’s underfunded jails. Maybe now you’ll get an appreciation of our tax dollars at work. Makes you wish you hadn’t cut funding to correctional facilities, huh?

SCROOGES AT CU

Wow, after decades of CU lagging behind peer universities in terms of employee benefits, out of the goodness of their hearts, CU officials at the Boulder campus are going to let spouses and children of faculty and staff take a few classes for free — in the summer.

Not much of a perk, that one. It’s like waiting tables and a party of 10 leaves you some spare change as a tip and you run after them and thrust it back into their hands, saying, “You forgot your change.”

OK, so we’re still recovering from that one. It’s amazing, they make 12-step programs for everything these days.

CU officials preach about how they need to throw big raises to their already overpaid administrators to retain them and remain competitive — using tuition money, no less — but when it comes to compensating their rank-and-file employees with a benefit that most of their peer schools offer, the reply is, “Sorry, peons, can’t afford it.”

Nice priorities, CU. To remain competitive, especially when trying to retain the good faculty who actually carry out the mission of the university, it’s time to start walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.

Maybe some of that money going to administrators’ salary increases could be used to expand this oh-so-generous benefit to the fall and spring semesters.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com