Lundberg advocate for free market

By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News

Kevin Lundberg of Berthoud carries no specific legislative agenda if elected to a fourth term in House District 49 other than continuing his crusade to limit the size of government and hold the line on taxes.

Lundberg's challenger is James Ross.

A fervent advocate for the free market, Republican Lundberg, 56, said government must be weaned from its insatiable hunger for ever more money from taxpayers. "The people can make better use of their money than the government can," he insisted.

That particularly holds true for health care, he said. While Lundberg agreed that affordable access to care is a huge problem, he said government intervention usually only makes matters worse.

He said the recommendations coming out of last session's Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform are a prime example.

"The commission basically was an attempt to socialize medicine in Colorado," Lundberg said. "I believe we need more free-market solutions where you put the patient and doctor in charge."

He was similarly disdainful of the Savings Account for Education proposal on the November ballot. The SAFE initiative would permanently exempt the state from the revenue limitations contained in the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. In exchange, the requirements for increased educational spending containing in Amendment 23 would be repealed. Those retained TABOR revenues would be directed into the state education fund.

Lundberg characterized the proposal as the "son of C," referring to Referendum C approved by voters in 2005. It gave the state a five-year "time-out" to retain revenues that TABOR would have refunded.

Amendment 59 has very little to do with education, he contended, but actually amounts to a permanent multi-billion-dollar tax increase.

"It means the legislature will have more to spend because it will take more money from the people," Lundberg said.

He considers transportation to be the state's top priority and is not intimidated by the pricey shopping list of improvements identified by the blue ribbon transportation finance and implementation panel.

"With a nearly $20 billion budget, it's not more money we need but better priorities," he said.

Lundberg said that applies to the panel in that it failed to distinguish between prudent highway projects and expensive mass-transit projects that cannot be justified as cost-effective.

Once again, he advocated for greater private-sector participation in the "highly regulated mass-transit system" to provide alternative such as privately operated jitneys.

An unabashed supporter of the Northern Integrated Supply Project and associated Glade Reservoir, Lundberg said, "We need to utilize our water resources in the wisest way we can."

He said his most satisfying accomplishment is the two-year effort he led to make it possible for grocery stores to offer gas and drug discounts.

Lundberg is a third-generation Coloradoan. For 27 years he has owned and operated Lundberg Productions, a media and video production service. Lundberg earned an undergraduate degree in history and social science from Rockmont College (now Colorado Christian University) and served on its board of trustees from 1986 to 2002. He also helped found Christian Home Educators of Colorado in 1990.