Aug 29

Why #TABOR Matters on August 29

• In 2005, voters passed Referendum C to provide more than $2 billion each year for roads.
• In 2009, the legislature passed FASTER fees, which provides $250 million each year through higher car registration fees.
• In 2017, the legislature “fixed” the Hospital Provider Fee, which freed up $600 million for roads and education.
• This all means we spend almost $3 billion more per year since 2005, yet our roads are still in terrible condition.
 
Who is accountable?
 
#WhyTABORMatters
Aug 22

Why TABOR Matters on August 22

Democrat legislators are such elitists.
Even though Colorado voters have said NO to the last six state-wide tax increases, they just ignore the results by calling a tax a fee (no vote required), setting up enterprise zones, and filing lawsuits.

Doesn’t NO mean NO?

#TABOR
#ThankGodForTABOR
#VoteNoOnPropCC
#TABORYes
#WhyTABORMatters

Aug 12

SENGENBERGER | Safeguard TABOR — and stand up for Colorado taxpayers

The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights is under attack. For at least a decade, Democrats in the Colorado legislature — backed by the Colorado Supreme Court in erroneous rulings and occasionally supported by faithless Republicans — have thwarted some of the protections afforded to Coloradans by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

Typically, these successful assaults against TABOR have come from taxes disguised as “fees.”  In fact, this past legislative session Democrats even proposed financing a paid family leave program with a payroll tax (like the Social Security tax) that they would again have labeled a “fee.”  (This legislation is likely to return next session.) 

But this year’s attack — Proposition CC, put on the ballot by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly and backed by Gov. Jared Polis (D) — is particularly troublesome.  Recall that the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights was passed in 1992 and provides two essential protections for Coloradans.  First, the amendment requires a vote of the people to raise taxes (unless legislators call it a “fee,” as discussed).

To read the rest of this story, click (HERE):

Jul 28

Semantics ploy could undermine TABOR

COLUMN: Semantics ploy could undermine TABOR

  • By: 
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What’s your opinion of Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution? I suspect the reply of the overwhelming majority of Coloradans to that question would be: “Huh?” But hold that thought.

If you’re a Colorado taxpayer, you better get a firm grip on your wallet. Once again, the forces of unlimited government and the folks who know how to spend your money better than you do are after it. The dragon they want to slay for the umpteenth time is commonly known as TABOR, The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

This was an amendment added to the state constitution via a ballot question by a direct vote of the people in the general election of 1992. It limits spending by all levels of government under a formula that considers population growth and inflation. It also requires approval by the voters for tax increases.

While still in the ballot-question womb and from the moment of its birth, TABOR has been generally supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats. To circumvent TABOR, Democrat governors and legislators have sometimes gotten away with the charade of disguising tax increases as new “fees.”

To read the rest of this story, click (HERE):

 

Jul 26

Fields: Legislators to blame for crumbling roads, not our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights

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Fields: Legislators to blame for crumbling roads, not our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights

July 26, 2019 By Michael Fields

As our state’s roads continue to get worse and worse, Coloradans are wondering when the legislature is finally going to make them a priority.

Earlier this month, a portion of U.S. Highway 36 collapsed, briefly shutting down the main connection between Boulder and Denver. The road was built only a couple of years ago through a public-private partnership – and the estimated cost to fix it is $20 million.

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has direct oversight over these road projects, and the legislature has direct oversight over CDOT.

So, it’s worthwhile to look both at CDOT’s performance, and how much focus (or lack of focus) the legislature has been putting on fixing our roads.

A newly released state performance audit looked at CDOT from 2016-17 – and the findings are quite alarming. CDOT spent 37% – $582.7 million – more than its approved budget for 2016-17. In the real world, most of us would get fired from our jobs if we overspent our budgets by 37%.

But that wasn’t CDOT’s only problem. The agency did not properly track how $1.3 billion was spent. While not finding any blatant fraud, the audit did say there was “suspicious patterns and anomalies.”

This was happening  around the same time that CDOT decided to build new offices for itself, costing taxpayers $150 million. With tone-deaf decisions like these, it’s no wonder why taxpayers continually shoot down statewide tax increases.

To read the rest of this story, click (HERE):