The Colorado Legislature is legally required to get your vote if they want to RAISE taxes. They can LOWER taxes at any point and without your vote.
#DontBeFooled
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#VoteNoOnPropHH
#TABOR
August 2023
Dear Voters and Taxpayers:
Proposition HH is NOT what proponents say it is. It is a huge tax increase. It takes your tax refunds already owed back to you but is disguised as a small amount of property tax relief to local governments. It raises State taxes by billions of dollars.
You should be outraged by how it came to get on the ballot. A great thing about the General Assembly is that it allows for views to be shared, citizens to testify in committee, and for important changes to be thoroughly debated. That’s not what happened. The legislation did not go through a proper Committee of Reference, like the Finance Committees in both chambers, as it should have. Also, it was introduced almost at the end of session. Further, reasonable debate was cut off in both chambers so that minority voices were silenced!
Legislators had a duty to follow the right process. Instead, they disrespected the rules and damaged democracy. What they did instead was sneaky and dictatorial. Don’t let them get away with violating your rights! Insist on a new session that conforms to an honest and open process!
Send the legislature back to work for a real solution.
Current legislators:
Rod Bockenfeld HD 56
| Rose Pugliese HD 14 | Scott Bottoms HD 15 | Don Wilson HD 20 |
| Mary Bradfield HD 21 | Ken DeGraaf HD 22 | Brandi Bradley HD39 |
| Anthony Hartsook HD 44 | Lisa Frizell HD 45 | Ty Winter HD 47 |
| Gabe Evans HD 48 | Ron Weinberg HD51 | Matt Soper HD54 |
| Rick Taggart HD 55 | Marc Catlin HD 58 | Stephanie Luck HD 60 |
| Richard Holtorf HD 63 | Ryan Armagost HD 64 | Mike Lynch HD65 |
| Paul Lundeen SD 9 | Byron Pelton SD 1 | Mark Baisley SD 4 |
| Perry Will SD 5 | Janice Rich SD 7 | Larry Liston SD 10 |
| Bob Gardner SD 12 | Kevin Van Winkle SD 30 | Rod Pelton SD 35 |
Past legislators
Penn Pfiffner 1993 – 2000
| Steve Acquafresca 1991 – 1997 | John Andrews 2003 -2005 | Barry Arrington 1997 – 1998 |
| Greg Brophy 2003 – 2014 | Perry Buck 2013 – 2020 | Mark Cloer 2000 – 2006 |
| Phil Covarrubias 2017 – 2018 | Mary Dabman 1983 – 1989 | Doug Dean 1995 – 2002 |
| Frank DeFilippo 1978-1984
Tim Fritz 1999 – 2003 |
Cliff Dodge 1976-1988
Dorothy Gotlieb 1996 – 2000 |
Robert Fairbank 1998 – 2004
Bill Jerke 1989 – 1996 |
| Bob Kirscht 1971 – 1987 | Don Lee 1999 – 2004 | Shawn Mitchell 1999 – 2013 |
| Pam Nagel Rhodes 2000 – 2004 | Lori Saine 2013 -2021 | Mike Salaz 1992 – 1999 |
| Jeff Shoemaker 1987 – 1992 | Ron Teck 1999 – 2006 | Mark Waller 2009 – 2014 |
| Brad Young 1996 – 2004 | Pat Grant 1985 – 1992 | Terri Carver 2015-2023 |
| Patrick Neville 2015-2023 | Lola Spradley 1997-2003 | Vickie Agler 1991 – 1998 |
| Ben Alexander 1995 – 1998 | Kay Alexander 1997-2002 | Don Beezley 2011-2013 |
| Jeanne Faatz 1979-1998 | Sally Hopper 1987-1998 | Eric Prinzler 1995-1998 |
| Andy Pico 2021-2022 | Carol Taylor 1983-1991 |
The TABOR Committee is celebrating the decision by the Colorado Special Districts Association to oppose Proposition HH!
Special districts are local governments that provide services such as fire protection and rescue, water, sanitation, hospitals and libraries. The Association represents about 2,600 of the 3,300 plus districts throughout the state.
The Association developed a template for its members to urge a No vote on the November 7th ballot. The template observes that “… Proposition HH will increase the State’s TABOR spending limit, allowing the State to spend billions of dollars more than it did before,” and continues with the alarming note that, if HH passes, then Special Districts will only receive “reimbursements (that) are a small percentage of the billions of dollars more that the State will retain.”
The Association’s statement ends with a clarion call to reject Proposition HH by concluding that “Proposition HH diminishes the ability of (a special district) to provide the vital services, facilities, and infrastructure that the public needs, expects, and demands. Vote NO on Proposition HH at the statewide election on November 7, 2023.”
Colorado voters will be asked in November to vote on Proposition HH. As with most ballot measures, it is written to sound very good and appealing. It starts out, “Shall the State reduce property taxes….” And, of course, like most ballot measures, that’s misleading and the actual text of the measure is complex.
You will, and are already, seeing social media posts and news coverage, and have probably received the first of many mail pieces about Proposition HH. You will be bombarded with numbers and formulas and forecasts. One such piece, designed to “simplify” the measure included the following dollar amounts – in just one piece: $1,074 million; $620 million; $2 billion; $145 million; $72 million; $287 million; $3.5 billion; $21 million; $94.3 million; $2.2 billion; $128 million; $161.3 million; $278 million; $351 million.
So, here’s what it all boils down to. Here are the two sentences that you need to know when you vote your ballot this fall:
1) If Proposition HH passes, it will only temporarily reduce property taxes.
2) If Proposition HH passes, it will reduce your Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refunds permanently.
That’s it. All that mumbo jumbo, simply explained in two sentences.
Property owners – your property taxes will still go up, just not as drastically, for a limited time.
Renters – your rent will still go up, because your landlord needs to recoup the increase in taxes.
Everybody – your TABOR refunds (remember those $750 or $1,500 checks?) will permanently be decreased and, because of a change in formula, eventually will go away forever.
The Colorado Women’s Alliance urges you to remember those two simple sentences when it comes time to mark your ballots. Vote “no” on Proposition HH.
Joni Inman, Golden
Executive Director of Colorado Women’s Alliance
Letter: Colorado Women’s Alliance explains Proposition HH in 2 easy sentences
Legislative Democrats have been scheming to kill Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, since before it was added to the state Constitution in 1992. Hardly a year goes by without a bill, proposal, “listening tour,” or lawsuit hatched to enable state legislators to spend money TABOR denies them. Now, they’re at it again.
This time, they’ve proposed a Rube-Goldberg ballot initiative called Proposition HH. Some of its superficial details might seem novel — like lipstick on the proverbial pig — but it’s only the latest gambit in a political long-con that has gotten very, very old.
That’s why the bill creating Prop HH was only passed in the last hours of the 2023 legislative session — to avoid public scrutiny and debate. That’s why Prop HH’s fans, including Gov. Jared Polis, are so cagey about what it would actually do, talking up property tax relief while pretending to know nothing about the redistribution of TABOR revenue to Democrat priorities.
And it’s why Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Prosperity-Colorado Issue Committee have joined up with more than a dozen citizen groups in a new coalition to protect TABOR and fight Prop HH at the ballot box and in state court this year.
What politicians and their special-interest allies are not telling you about Prop HH is that it will eventually eliminate TABOR refunds.
Those are the same refunds they expedited last year to ensure they arrived before the last election — saying that citizens desperately needed the money.
To add insult to injury, Prop HH will also allow local governments to keep money owed to you without voter approval. Now politicians at the local level can now vote to keep your money. Prop HH removes you from this conversation.
For all the excuses, pretenses, and shiny objects politicians offer up to distract Colorado voters, there is only one reason they want to “update” or “tweak” or “modernize” TABOR: It works at holding them accountable. TABOR limits the annual growth of state government spending to population growth plus inflation. It’s a padlock on the state treasury that big-spending politicians have been trying to pick, break or dynamite for a generation.
Since TABOR was passed, and government spending capped, the state’s economy has consistently outperformed the nation as a whole. Between 1997 and 2022, for instance, Colorado’s real gross domestic product grew 109% while the country’s rose only 73%, increasing our share of national GDP by 18%.
Not surprisingly, TABOR is very popular — garnering 77% support in a 2022 survey. And perhaps even more to the point, since TABOR passed, so many Americans have relocated to Colorado that we’ve gained two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives over the last three censuses.
At a certain point, one has to ask whether Colorado has succeeded so spectacularly over the last three decades in spite of our politicians’ limited control over taxpayers’ money — or because of it.
After all, the big-government states that Democrats want to emulate — New York, California, Illinois — are the ones that new Coloradans escaped here from!
Under TABOR, when the state raises more money in taxes than it is permitted to spend, the money is returned to taxpayers — period, end of story. Under our state Constitution, that money is Coloradans’ right, not doled out at the discretion of politicians or the influence of special interests.
Prop. HH’s sole purpose is to gut that right and seize the cash — not for Colorado, but from it.
Gov. Polis and legislative Democrats are certainly right that the government should take measures to lower the high cost of living in the state. But they’re the ones driving it up! If property taxes are too high, they can cut the rates. If education and health-care programs need reforming, other states — including two of our “Four Corners” neighbors — have shown that market-oriented consumer choice and less government control lower costs and improve quality.
Contrary to the elite narrative, TABOR is not an obstacle to opportunity and prosperity in Colorado; it is a wellspring of both. AFP-Colorado and the new TABOR coalition are going to make that case until politicians remember that they work for us, not the other way around.
Jesse Mallory is state director for Americans for Prosperity-Colorado.
August 15, 2023 By Natalie Menten
In October 2023, Colorado voters are going to get a ballot information guide, nicknamed the Blue Book (it literally has a blue cover page) in the mail prior to the arrival of their actual ballots.
This year the Blue Book will cover the two statewide tax increases – Proposition II and HH.
Common questions during the election include who phrases the ballot questions and who writes the Blue Book. This is especially true when ballot questions are deceptively worded like Proposition HH, which paints pictures of pies in the sky without disclosing the real intent to screw you out of your Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refunds for at least the next 10 years, and likely forever.
The Blue Book is where you can make a difference. You get to participate and no expertise is needed. There’s a special reason that you’re especially needed this year.
Slick politicians wrote the Prop HH ballot language and rushed it through the state legislature without responsible notice to the public. A recent survey indicates 2/3 of voters will vote for Proposition HH if they read only the deceptive and misleading ballot question that state Representatives Chris deGruy Kennedy and Mike Weissman, and Senators Steve Fenberg and Chris Hansen cunningly wrote.
It’s up to us to ensure content in the ballot guide provides a full and clear picture to voters. Otherwise, the majority of the players at the table are the very politicians who hate spending limits and TABOR, like the sponsors of Prop HH (Senate Bill 23-303). Continue reading
#DontBeFooled
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#VoteNoOnPropHH
#TABOR
David Flaherty is CEO of Magellan Strategies, a CO-based public opinion polling and survey research firm. He recently did an interesting poll about Proposition HH, a measure on this November’s ballot which will slightly lower property tax rates while all but eliminating (over several years) TABOR refunds. It’s a disgusting and cynical ploy which I will work hard to defeat. The poll’s findings are interesting: in short, people like HH until they understand it. The implications are obvious.
Colorado Proposition HH Opinion Survey | Magellan Strategies
Colorado Proposition HH poll shows mixed support, opposition (denverpost.com)
I also want to know: How do pollsters inform respondents about an issue, to test uninformed vs informed, without injecting bias into the question?
Click the following link to hear a recording of the show:
#DontBeFooled
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#VoteNoOnPropHH
#TABOR
It’s important to educate the voter on Prop HH. 44% of people will vote against it if they know enough about it.
Here are the results of Magellan’s Polling survey: https://magellanstrategies.com/proposition-hh-survey/
And the Polling presentation: https://magellanstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Colorado-Proposition-HH-Voter-Opinion-Survey-Presentation-071223.pdf
Here are some stats at a glance:
Prop HH Familiarity
Uninformed Ballot (of people who don’t understand what HH will do).
Losing TABOR refunds and letting the state retain the money
Participatory Taxation *
* If Prop HH is approved, a new process called “Participatory Taxation” or “Truth in
Taxation” would be created for local governments to consider. This process would allow a
majority of local government elected officials to vote to retain property tax revenue that
would otherwise be refunded to taxpayers. To clarify, elected officials, rather than voters,
would decide to keep property tax revenue.
#DontBeFooled
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#VoteNoOnPropHH
#TABOR
ALEC Executive Vice President of Policy and Chief Economist Jonathan Williams discusses an upcoming Colorado ballot measure that would expand government spending and weaken Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), the nation’s strongest taxpayer protection.
The progressive push to undermine common sense checks on government spending is never-ending. It’s evidenced recently by the debate over the federal debt limit in Washington DC. The latest push is happening in Colorado as progressives are once again attempting to undermine the taxpayers’ Bill of Rights or TABOR, which is the gold standard of a state constitutional limit on overspending and overtaxing. It was adopted by voters as a state constitutional amendment back in 1992. It has helped restrain the growth of government and return billions of dollars to Colorado taxpayers.
However, the upcoming ballot measure in Colorado if approved, would gut TABOR in exchange for small, short-term cuts to property tax. Known as Proposition HH, this proposal tempts voters with the allure of a property tax cut with its real purpose is to clearly to water down TABOR’s tax and spending limits. My friend Ben Murray, Director of fiscal policy at the Independence Institute, described the package as a boondoggle of a property tax plan. The attacks on TABOR aren’t new. The property tax cut quote unquote, is the only latest gimmick to attempt to unleash the leviathan of big government on hardworking Coloradoans.
As the ALEC team explained in the National Review on the recent 30th anniversary of TABOR, TABOR has seen no shortage of progressive attacks which serves as an acknowledgement of the danger it presents to those that would like no constraints on the government’s ability to grow. Though all states except Bernie Sanders of Vermont have some sort of a balanced budget requirements in state law or their constitution, most don’t have robust protections such as that what TABOR offers.