{"id":97823,"date":"2018-09-25T09:58:34","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T15:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-senate-candidates-coram-unger-differ-on-ballot-issues\/"},"modified":"2018-09-25T09:58:34","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T15:58:34","slug":"state-senate-candidates-coram-unger-differ-on-ballot-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-senate-candidates-coram-unger-differ-on-ballot-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"State Senate candidates Coram, Unger differ on ballot issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"
du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wants are many but resources are scarce; it\u2019s a division that frequently separates views on public policies.<\/p>\n

In state Senate District 6, the southwestern corner of the state, how far government should go to address needs given scarce resources emerges as a dividing theme when comparing incumbent Don Coram<\/a>, R-Montrose, with his opponent, Guinn Unger<\/a>, a Bayfield Democrat.<\/p>\n

Both candidates were interviewed by The Durango Herald<\/em> editorial board, Unger on Thursday and Coram on Monday.<\/p>\n

Amendment 73, a $1.6 billion tax increase to provide funding for education, exemplifies the cost-versus-action divide that separates the two.<\/p>\n

The income tax hike is aimed at the wealthiest Coloradans \u2013 applying only to people making more than $150,000 a year with gradually increasing tax rates, and it would actually lower homeowners\u2019 property tax rates in school districts across the state.<\/p>\n

\"Coram\"
Coram<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But a provision in Amendment 73 that would increase the state\u2019s corporate tax rate from 4.63 percent to 6 percent, Coram said, would be too damaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the No. 1 economy in the country, and this measure would not encourage corporations to come to Colorado,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Unger\"
Unger<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Unger finds Amendment 73 too complex, but ultimately, he said he would vote for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t properly fund education,\u201d Unger said, \u201cwe are not going to have a properly educated workforce. Our kids will not get good jobs, and we won\u2019t be able to attract companies to the Western Slope.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar divide emerges when both candidates are asked whether they would support another ballot measure to increase the distance between new oil and gas development and occupied buildings.<\/p>\n

Proposition 112 would increase the setback for new oil and gas development to 2,500 feet from homes, occupied buildings and vulnerable areas, such as playgrounds, sports fields, parks and amphitheaters.<\/p>\n

The current setbacks are 1,000 feet for high-occupancy buildings, such as schools and hospitals, 500 feet for homes and 350 feet from outdoor areas, such as playgrounds.<\/p>\n

Unger said he would prefer the setback be 2,000 feet. While he hasn\u2019t come to a final decision on whether to vote for Proposition 112, he said he would consider voting for the measure and its 2,500-foot setback.<\/p>\n

Coram, weighing the cost of the measure, said he has seen estimates that Proposition 112 could affect 230,000 jobs and cost the state $32 billion in revenue generated from the oil and natural gas industry. He will vote NO.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, I don\u2019t think the state can afford it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If elected, Unger said he would focus his efforts on improving health insurance for Coloradans, combating climate change and improving funding for education.<\/p>\n

Coram said he would focus his efforts on providing funding for a statewide water plan that guides water policy in nine different river basins and on toughening laws on the use of drones by private individuals over forest fires.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

government action often divides candidates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[826,1509,934],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-political-campaigns","tag-state-elections","tag-state-sen-don-coram"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97823"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}