Category Archives: Colorado Legislature

Feb 07

State Supreme Court to consider whether paid family, medical leave violates TABOR

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Justices of the Colorado Supreme Court, 2021

 

The Colorado Supreme Court will decide whether the paid family and medical leave program that voters enacted in the 2020 election violates the state’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

The court announced on Monday that it will review a decision from Denver District Court that dismissed a lawsuit over Proposition 118, the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program. By a margin of 58% to 42%, voters approved a plan to impose payroll premiums, split between employers and employees, that would entitle workers to up to 12 weeks of paid leave.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2023, payments into the program will begin. But Grand Junction-based Chronos Builders is claiming that the funding arrangement violates TABOR, the 1992 constitutional amendment that requires tax increases to be put to a vote of the electorate, among other restrictions.

“Any income tax law change,” TABOR reads, “shall also require all taxable net income to be taxed at one rate … with no added tax or surcharge.”

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Jan 31

Democrats set to kill GOP effort to make Colorado’s hospital provider charge transparent

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DENVER — Legislative Democrats are poised to kill a Republican effort to increase transparency for their constituents where fees and spending are concerned.

While Colorado Democrats and Governor Jared Polis continue to tout new state and federal regulations that went into effect Jan. 1 requiring all emergency medical costs to be disclosed before a patient is treated, an opaque charge collected on hospital stays, passed under previous Democrat legislation isn’t getting the same reception.

The fallout is leading two GOP lawmakers to call foul on their Democrat counterparts for not requiring government to follow the same transparency rules they force private industry into.

Senate Bill 22-038, the “Healthcare Affordability and Sustainability Fee,” sponsored by Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling has been assigned to the State Veterans & Military Affairs Committee, where ideas that majority Democrats don’t agree with go to die.

It’s dubbed the “kill committee” because it’s where Senate leadership sends bills it doesn’t want debated among all the senators on the floor.

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Jan 11

AMERICANISM VS. COMMUNISM. WHICH IS IT GOING TO BE?

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AMERICANISM VS. COMMUNISM

WHICH IS IT GOING TO BE?

 

Join your fellow American Patriots

January 29, 2022

Margaret Carpenter Recreation Center

11151 Colorado Blvd, Thornton, CO 80233

9:30am to 11:30am

Guests Speakers:

  • Retired Colorado State Senator Kevin Lundberg
  • Yvonne Paez, Perspectives 101
  • Dr. Paul Prentice, Senior Fellow, Fiscal Policy Center at the Independence Institute
  • Helen Raleigh, Author and Senior Writer to the Federalist
  • Anil Mathai, Former ACRC Chairman and Chairman of the New Congressional District 8

 

A $20 dollar donation will be appreciated.

Oct 16

TABOR Committee position on Proposition 120

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The TABOR Committee urges a YES vote on Proposition 120, “Property Tax Assessment Rate Reduction.”

The proposal would put into law the assessed values for residential and commercial property for purposes of calculating annual property taxes.  It would lower the calculated tax burden by about $1 Billion.

The repeal of the Gallagher Amendment was argued as a way to simplify the tax system and make it more rational.  It also resulted in higher expected property taxes.  This proposal reduces the expected property taxes.  After the measure qualified for the ballot, the legislature acted to thwart the will of the people by passing a bill which vastly reduced the effect.  Voting for the measure will certainly lead to a necessary legal challenge, based on the standing legal theory that the most recent change in statute (the passage of the Proposition) becomes the new controlling law.  Not only is this measure’s underlying tax reform a good idea, but the fall-out will be critical in preventing future legislators from denying the people the right of the initiative through dishonest subterfuge.

#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#ThankGodForTABOR
#VoteOnTaxesAndFees
#TABOR
#FollowTheMoney
#FollowTheLaw
#UnlessLiberalsIgnoreTheLaw

Oct 16

TABOR Committee position on Proposition 119

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The TABOR Committee urges a NO vote on Proposition 119, “Learning Enrichment and Academic Progress Program.”

The initiated measure would change state law to increase taxes by $137.6 Million on marijuana.  Proceeds would go to a new program and agency to fund K-12 after-school activities.

That this concept includes voucher-like opportunities is a good, but insufficient reason to support the measure.  Yet another new centralized state government program is unlikely to solve the problems, will have a significant administrative burden and necessarily get bogged down in red tape, funding too much bureaucracy and too little programming.  Additionally, ever-higher taxes on marijuana will encourage the lower-cost, criminal underground market for pot.

#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#ThankGodForTABOR
#VoteOnTaxesAndFees
#TABOR
#FollowTheMoney
#FollowTheLaw
#UnlessLiberalsIgnoreTheLaw

 

 

 

 

Oct 16

Announcing the TABOR Committee’s position on Amendment 78

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The TABOR Committee urges a YES vote on Amendment 78, “Legislative Authority for Spending State Money”

This constitutional amendment respects the separation of powers by putting the General Assembly into the process of appropriating revenues received by the state government.  As the system works now, only the Executive branch (Governor and his appointed agencies) determine how federal grants, like COVID relief funds or money from legal settlements, are spent.

The legislative process allows for public comment and input, which is absent under the current system.  Passage of this measure would put that process in place, respecting an intent of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.  The TABOR Committee is also alarmed that so much power is currently in the hands of one person, which violates one of the founding principles of American governance.  Some concern exists that taxes currently counted toward the TABOR annual limitation will be made exempt, but the Committee was unable to identify any.  Therefore we endorse the proposed measure for respecting the proper separation of powers.

Sep 30

Lawsuit filed seeking to remove Amendment 78 from Colorado’s November ballot

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FILE - Colorado Election 2020
A lone voter casts his ballot amid voting stations set up in the McNichols building Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in downtown Denver.

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Amendment 78 would transfer the power to appropriate custodial funds (state revenue not generated through taxes) from the state treasurer to the state legislature.

Plaintiffs alleged that the amendment is not substantially related to Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) and therefore should not appear on the 2021 ballot. Measures that can go on the ballot during odd years in Colorado are limited to topics that concern taxes or state fiscal matters arising under TABOR. This requirement was added to state law in 1994. The Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) requires voter approval for all new taxes, tax rate increases, extensions of expiring taxes, mill levy increases, valuation for property assessment increases, or tax policy changes resulting in increased tax revenue. TABOR limits the amount of money the state of Colorado can take in and spend. It ties the annual increase for some state revenue to inflation plus the percentage change in state population. Any money collected above this limit is refunded to taxpayers unless the voters allow the state to spend it

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