On KBDI, Post's Haley again promoted unsubstantiated cost figure for state collective bargaining

Summary: In response to a question about a figure cited in a November 4 front-page Denver Post editorial, Post editorial page editor Dan Haley on the November 8 broadcast of KBDI Channel 12's Colorado Inside Out cited "various people who have said" that an executive order issued by Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter will drive up the cost of doing business in Colorado "anywhere from 10 to 30 percent." As Colorado Media Matters noted, the November 4 editorial asserted without factual substantiation that "[e]xperts say collective bargaining can add as much as 30 percent to the cost of doing business," and Haley made a similar claim on a KDVR Fox 31 newscast the same day.

During a November 8 discussion about Gov. Bill Ritter's (D) Executive Order D 028 07, "Authorizing Partnership Agreements with State Employees," host Raj Chohan of KBDI Channel 12's Colorado Inside Out referenced a figure that appeared in a front-page editorial of The Denver Post, asking Post editorial page editor Dan Haley where he got "that 30 percent statistic -- that it's [the executive order] going to drive up the cost of business in Colorado?" Haley responded, "That's a government statistic that we received from various people who have said anywhere from 10 to 30 percent." The higher figure also had been asserted without factual substantiation in the November 4 editorial (updated November 6), which attacked Ritter as a "toady" and a "bag man" for organized labor.

As Colorado Media Matters previously noted, after accusing Ritter of "forcing collective bargaining on thousands of state employees," the Post editorial asserted, "Experts say collective bargaining can add as much as 30 percent to the cost of doing business"; it did not identify the "experts" who came up with that figure. Haley made a similar unsubstantiated claim on the November 4 edition of KDVR's Fox 31's News at Nine O'Clock when he said that Ritter's order "will drive up the cost of doing business in state government."

From the November 8 broadcast of KBDI Channel 12's Colorado Inside Out:

CHOHAN: Well, Dan, where do you get that 30 percent statistic -- that it's going to drive up the cost of business in Colorado 30 percent?

HALEY: That's a government statistic that we received from various people who have said anywhere from 10 to 30 percent, and that is involving the workplace rules. I mean, and I always come up with these bad analogies of, if you go out and patch a pothole right now you can have one guy who can go out, run the steamroller and fill the dirt; when you start negotiating workplace rules, suddenly you have one guy that turns the shovel, one guy that runs the steamroller, one guy that flags traffic, and you start doing things less efficiently.

Similar to his Fox 31 appearance, Haley again failed to specify which government entity or report he was referring to, nor did he indicate who the "various people" were who passed the "10 to 30 percent" figure along to the Post.

—T.S.P.