On the November 6 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show, guest host Jon Caldara left unchallenged former Gov. Bill Owens' (R) criticism of the timing of Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter's November 2 announcement of Executive Order D 028 07, “Authorizing Partnership Agreements with State Employees.” Citing as a contrast his own issuance of an executive order that affected employees' ability to have union dues deducted automatically from their state paychecks, Owens criticized Ritter for issuing his executive order “on Friday afternoon at three o'clock ... hoping to avoid the debate we're now having.” In fact, Owens issued his own controversial executive order -- which became the subject of a union lawsuit -- on the Friday before Memorial Day, May 25, 2001.

Moreover, contrary to Owens' assertion, “I issued an executive order -- which I was very proud of -- which said, we're not going to collect union dues for the unions,” Executive Order D0071 in fact did not specifically mention unions or dues, and was not covered* by either The Denver Post or the Rocky Mountain News until June 29, 2001, when the News (accessed through the Nexis database) reported that unions and other opponents had decried it “as an end run to enact a so-called 'Paycheck Protection' plan to make it more difficult to automatically withhold funds from paychecks for political purposes.” Caldara had prompted Owens' misleading statement by declaring falsely to Owens, “You had a very simple executive order that said unions in Colorado need to go directly to their state employee and ask for the money directly,” to which Owens replied, “Absolutely.”

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Ritter's November 2 executive order has been the subject of misleading criticism and unbalanced coverage in the media. Colorado Media Matters has further noted that the Independence Institute -- of which Caldara is the president -- sponsored the "Ask First" campaign for 2007 ballot issues to implement for local governments the kind of “paycheck protection” rules that Owens implemented for state government with his 2001 executive order.

From the November 6 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show, with guest host Jon Caldara:

CALDARA: Let's start off with your executive order that you put in as governor. Let's talk about executive orders. You had a very simple executive order that said unions in Colorado need to go directly to their state employee and ask for the money directly.

OWENS: Absolutely. I didn't think it fair to have Colorado's taxpayers directly subsidize unions by having union dues collected by the state. I didn't think that was the proper role of the state of Colorado, to be kind of a bagman for unions and help them collect their dues.

CALDARA: So in other words, the payroll --

OWENS: So I issued an executive order -- which I was very proud of -- which said, we're not going to collect union dues for the unions.

CALDARA: And that was pretty effective. I mean, it seemed as though most government workers enjoyed that, and in fact the amount of money that went to unions dropped pretty substantially, which gives me a sense that they didn't realize they were even paying it.

OWENS: Well, Jon, my position was pretty simple. I wanted the union to have to go and sell itself every year when it asked for that three or $400 dues check. I didn't think it an appropriate function of the state to step in and be an intermediary between, you know, organized labor and the work force. This was something that I did, and I, you know, think that it's something that most Coloradans would agree with. We shouldn't be subsidizing the union's attempts to organize the state work force.

Contrary to Caldara's assertion that Owens “had a very simple executive order that said unions in Colorado need to go directly to their state employee and ask for the money directly,” the executive order in fact barred the state from making automatic payroll deductions from state employee paychecks on behalf of unions by designating the charitable Colorado Combined Campaign as the only entity eligible for that service. According to the June 29, 2001, News article:

Labor organizations that represent Colorado's state government workers think an executive order from Gov. Bill Owens is an effort to cripple if not destroy them.

They say the order he issued in May could prevent them from automatically withdrawing dues from employee paychecks as they have done for decades.

Some view his action as an end run to enact a so-called “Paycheck Protection” plan to make it more difficult to automatically withhold funds from paychecks for political purposes.

“We think it's aimed at labor organizations, and it's ill-timed, ill-advised and unfortunate,” said Wendell Pryor, executive director of the Colorado Association of Public Employees.

But spokesmen for the governor said the claims are off-based and certainly premature.

All Owens did when he signed the order on May 25 was comply with a 1996 law reforming the personnel season and repealing the automatic approval of all written requests for deductions in state payroll checks, they said.

Roy Palmer, Owens' chief of staff, said the order merely brings the state into compliance with a law that has been sitting on the books for five years without any action. It mandates a review of all payroll deductions. [emphasis added]

The Colorado Supreme Court explained how the executive order impacted unions in a May 24, 2004, decision that affirmed the standing of state employees and unions to challenge Owens' executive order:

In May of 2001, five years after the latest substantive statutory change, the Governor issued Executive Order D00701 regarding automatic payroll deductions. This Executive Order “defin[ed] the policy of the State regarding payroll deductions” saying that:

[S]tate government should not use taxpayer resources to duplicate services that can be provided by the private sector. Payroll deduction services should be used for administrative convenience to the State to reduce the burdens on state government in providing employment related services to its employees. Individuals who choose to deduct from their accounts for personal reasons have the ability to arrange for personal deductions through their private financial institutions.

Because section 24-50-104(8) does not define which deductions are “state-sponsored for all state employees” and thus statutorily entitled to automatic deductions, the Governor, in his Order, designated the Colorado Combined Campaign “as the only entity 'state-sponsored for all state employees' ” and thus, the only non-statutory program to be exempted from executive review and approval. The Governor's Order also directed the Executive Director to “conduct the statutorily required review of all requests for payroll deductions within the director's authority, consistent with the policy expressed in this Executive Order” and to “continue all deductions that are 'state-sponsored for all state employees,' consistent with the designation contained in this Executive Order,” Thus, only the Colorado Combined Campaign, and not employee association dues, was deductible.

Owens' executive order ultimately withstood court challenges; Ritter overturned it by an executive order announced March 15.

At Caldara's prompting, Owens criticized Ritter for announcing Executive Order D 028 07 on a Friday:

CALDARA: Let's not -- before we get into the details of the executive order, let's just talk about the Friday afternoon drop. Now, one of the things that got me was, this is one of the biggest policy changes in years in Colorado. And for a governor to drop this bomb without so much as even a press conference -- as many disagreements as you and I might have had, and other things that we've worked together on, I can't imagine Bill Owens, or [former Democratic Gov.] Roy Romer, or [former Democratic Gov.] Dick Lamm making this change without going out and selling it personally.

OWENS: Well, I do object to using an executive order in this case. I think that this is something that should have gone through the legislature. I think it's something where legislators should to be put on record. I think that in a representative democracy, it's something that ought to be debated and, in fact, introduced, amended, and voted upon. And Governor Ritter has avoided all of that by, on Friday afternoon at three o'clock, knowing there's not going to be a Denver Post issued on, printed on Saturday, doing it at three o'clock on a Friday -- frankly, hoping to avoid the debate we're now having.

Contrary to the suggestion that Owens was more upfront than Ritter in announcing a controversial executive order, in fact Owens released his on the Friday preceding Memorial Day in 2001. While the Post does not publish a Saturday edition, an article about Ritter's order appeared in the November 3 edition of the News, and the Post published articles on its website on November 2 and November 3. As noted above, the major Denver daily newspapers did not report on Owens' executive order until over a month later, and then in the context of union opposition to it.

(*Nexis search on the string “Owens or payroll or executive w/1 order or union or dues”)