Monthly Archives: July 2024

Jul 30

EDITORIAL: Salute our state’s constitution this Colorado Day

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EDITORIAL: Salute our state’s constitution this Colorado Day

  • The Gazette editorial board

On Thursday, the state of Colorado turns 148 — and Coloradans no doubt can think of many good reasons to celebrate.

Among them of course are the Centennial State’s unmatched natural wonders. There’s also the state’s exquisite climate; its vast, wide-open spaces, and its abundant resources — from oil and gas underground to the wind and sunshine all around — that heat our homes, power our automobiles and light the way.

One blessing that’s more directly connected to the advent of Colorado’s statehood itself is our founding charter — our state’s constitution — which shares the same birthday. Drafted in March of 1876 and approved by territorial voters on July 1 of the same year, the Colorado Constitution formally took effect Aug. 1, 1876, when Colorado was admitted to the union.

There’s good reason to celebrate the state’s constitution, as well, on Colorado Day.

Like any constitution, ours isn’t without foibles. At times it has left itself wide open to interpretation, and activist courts have been happy to oblige. Yet, on the balance, Colorado’s constitution has served its citizens pretty well — including by way of some well-timed and well-placed amendments to the document over the generations. Continue reading →

Jul 25

HB1311.  New law plunders TABOR refunds.

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HB1311.  New law plunders TABOR refunds.

During the legislative session just ended, legislators passed and the governor signed a new law that establishes a new income redistribution program.
Your expected TABOR rebate from the state government over-collecting taxes was reduced and got cut nearly in half.

The new law is known as House Bill 1311, which sponsors call the Family Affordability Tax Credit (FATC).

The measure diverts $684 million in the first year, using planned TABOR refunds to give subsidies to low-income families with children.
There are formulas for how households will be treated differently, depending on the age of the child and the amount of income earned by the parent.

How did the General Assembly get away with a costly new program that you did not get to vote on?
After all, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights requires that voters must approve the retention of taxes above the TABOR limits.
Proponents claim the scheme is a method to return the surplus.

The act creates a new refundable tax credit.  Refundable means that the State will rebate to the welfare recipient money above any taxes that person owes.

This is a clear violation, as TABOR is to rebate over-collected taxes to those who paid and should be proportional when identifiable.

Income taxes are clearly identifiable.
There is no reasonable explanation that the State cannot identify who paid how much income tax and how much of a TABOR rebate that taxpayer should get.

The new law, HB1311 says:

  • Eligible people are “residents.”
  • They do not have to be taxpayers.
  • They do not have to be citizens!
  • They do not even have to reside in the state all year!

The TABOR Committee explored how to overturn HB1311 on this fall’s ballot.
Is there enough interest and funding to reverse the new law?
Action must be taken immediately and the effort is costly.

Arguments against the HB1311 program:

  • Note that HB 1311 is in addition to the “Earned” Income Tax Credit bill and the Child Care Tax Credit, which also reduce our general TABOR rebates.
  • While subsidizing families is arguably a government goal, it is done properly through welfare programs.  In Colorado with TABOR in place, that would mean funding the program under the TABOR spending limits.  It would require prioritizing the welfare subsidies within the budget imposed by the citizens.  Instead, this bill establishes a new welfare program completely reliant on state TABOR surpluses.
  • TABOR was never meant to become an instrument to redistribute income.  The concept was that tax rates would be adjusted downward to eliminate any permanent over-collections.

If this program is so important to proponents, then why restrict it to TABOR refund years?

Legislators are ignoring a very important message by citizens in the landslide negative vote last fall against Proposition HH.
With a roar, they told the government to leave the TABOR rebates alone so that taxes over-collected by the state would be returned to the taxpayers.

A philosophic core of the Progressives, who control the current Colorado General Assembly, is the leveling of income.
This bill, HB1311, is a mechanism to redistribute income through the TABOR tax rebates.

We need to overturn this horrendous bill at the ballot box.

Will you join us in trying to do so and restore your TABOR surplus refunds?

#ColoradoRejectedPropHH
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#DontBeFooled
#VoteOnTaxesAndFees
#FeesAreTaxes
#TABOR
#FollowTheMoney
#FollowTheLaw
#ThankGodForTABOR

Jul 15

Jefferson County’s commissioners seek elimination of TABOR refunds — again

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Boxes of ballots await tabulation in Jefferson County from the Primary Election in June.

Deborah Grigsby/Denver Gazette

 

For the third time in five years, Jefferson County’s elected officials are asking voters to allow the local government to spend all of the revenue that it collects above the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights limit, thereby eliminating refunds to taxpayers.

For fiscal year 2024, that refund amount is estimated to be $54.4 million.

Last year, the county refunded $39.4 million to roughly 210,000 property taxpayers.

The county’s voters rejected the idea twice — in 2019 and 2022 — but the county’s commissioners this month insisted that, after “engaging” with the public through “both qualitative and quantitative research,” voters need to decide the question again.

“It is the spirit of TABOR to bring questions like this to the voters and let them decide,” Commissioner Andy Kerr said in a statement. “TABOR demands that community members engage with their government to address challenges like this.”

“I have great pride in Jefferson County, but we’re falling behind in essential county services, and that’s where we come in as county fiscal stewards,” Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper said during the meeting that sent the measure to the November ballot.

Under TABOR, local voters may allow their respective government to “debruce” — that is, permit a county, municipality or school district to eliminate the TABOR spending limit, and then to retain and spend all of the revenue it has collected.

Jefferson County is among a few counties that have not “debruced.” A majority of Colorado’s 64 counties have done so.

Last week, commissioners Kerr, Dahlkemper and Tracy Kraft-Tharp voted to place the debrucing question on the ballot. Continue reading →