Monthly Archives: April 2025

Apr 05

URGENT: Colorado Legislators Want to Sue the People, Reverse TABOR, Biggest Tax Increase Ever?!

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This Monday, April 7th, we need you to speak out in defense of your rights, your paycheck, and your family’s finances.

That’s when HJR25-1023: Require General Assembly TABOR Constitutionality Lawsuit will be heard in Committee.

This latest scheme is to sue the people of Colorado with the purpose of repealing the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).

If successful, this would be the largest tax increase in Colorado history. Your TABOR tax refund would disappear, taxpayers would lose their right to approve tax increases, and governments across Colorado would be able to steal more money from hardworking Colorado families.

In this video, Natalie Menten provides the background on this measure, talking points you can use during testimony, and information on the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

Please speak, in-person or remote in defense of TABOR by opposing HJR25-1023.

Testimony information:

Bill info: https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hjr25-1023

Hearing time: Monday, April 7th in the House Finance Committee at 1:30 pm in House Committee Room 0112, first floor of the State Capitol.

Sign up here: https://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2025A/commsumm.nsf/NewSignIn.xsp

Easiest to find: “By Committee and Hearing Item”

Committee Name: House Finance

Meeting Date and Time: 04/07/2025 01:30 PM

Hearing Item: House Finance: HJR25-1023 (Require GA TABOR Constitutionality Lawsuit)

Talking Points:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

URGENT: Colorado Legislators Want to Sue the People, Reverse TABOR, Biggest Tax Increase Ever?! – Free State Colorado

Apr 02

10th Circuit dismisses lawsuit challenging validity of TABOR

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We just wanted to remind you that the premise of this case was settled in December, 2021 but the political party on the left doesn’t learn. Here’s the headline and story:

10th Circuit dismisses lawsuit challenging validity of TABOR

FILE PHOTO: The Byron R. White U.S. Courthouse in Denver, which houses the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.

MICHAEL KARLIK/COLORADO POLITICS

The federal appeals court based in Denver has dismissed the long-running lawsuit seeking to void Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, finding in a 7-2 decision that a collection of local governments has no basis to challenge the 1992 constitutional amendment.

Chief Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich, writing for himself and six of his colleagues, concluded that the Boulder County Board of County Commissioners, a handful of school districts and one special district failed to show that the 1875 Enabling Act that guaranteed to Colorado a “republican” form of government had also given the local government entities the ability to challenge TABOR’s taxing and spending restrictions.

“Looking at the Enabling Act’s language, we conclude the plaintiffs cannot state a claim under the Act’s promise of a republican constitution. Neither the Enabling Act’s text nor structure supports the political subdivisions’ arguments. The clause promising a constitution republican in form has no clear beneficiary,” Tymkovich wrote in the Dec. 13 decision.

The ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit represents a blow to opponents of TABOR, who argue that it has starved governments of revenue and made crucial funding obligations, such as education and transportation, more difficult through the imposition of tax increases only at the permission of voters.

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Apr 01

Democrats roll out tax and TABOR reform plan

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Democrats roll out tax and TABOR reform plan to remake state finances, calling for “a reckoning”
Colorado lawmakers float legal challenge that, if successful, could kill TABOR outright

A group of Colorado lawmakers has unveiled a plan to fundamentally change state tax policy and attempt to eliminate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR.

The plan, announced Monday afternoon by Democratic legislators, includes reclassifying chunks of Colorado highway funding so it doesn’t fall under the TABOR spending cap, which would free up money for other things. They also hope to end Colorado’s flat income tax and replace it with a system in which higher-income taxpayers pay higher rates than low-income filers.

Lawmakers also introduced a resolution Monday that seeks to launch a lawsuit challenging the legality of TABOR, which was passed by Colorado voters in 1992, under the U.S. Constitution.

“The state is coming to a reckoning on whether we can sustain ourselves,” said Sean Camacho, a Denver Democrat. “And all of these measures are critical to figuring that out.”

The lawsuit resolution has attracted a roster of co-sponsors, including some top legislative leaders. The proposals come as Colorado faces a budget hole of more than $1 billion because of the cap set by TABOR.

TABOR limits how much state spending can grow based on inflation and population growth. Certain sectors of government spending, chiefly mandatory Medicaid costs, have far outstripped the pace of consumer inflation, effectively eating into how much the state can spend on nonmandatory programs.

To read the rest of this article, click (HERE) to go to the Denver Post.