Apr 21

Threats to TABOR are threats to democracy | CALDARA

TABOR simply means voter consent.
TABOR is democracy.
Weakening TABOR is weakening democracy.

Every couple of years the spending lobby orchestrates an assault on our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. They are testing another onslaught likely for next year.

I was around for the fights to pass TABOR in the early 1990s. Then-Gov.Roy Romer famously declared if it passed, it will put a “going out of business” sign on the entrance to Colorado.

Oddly, our population has nearly doubled since then, and state spending has ballooned from just more than $6 billion to roughly $44 billion.

Read that headline again. Since TABOR, our population grew one-fold, state spending grew 7-fold. Predictable tax and spending policy helped create a boom.

The opposite of Romer’s scare is true. If we mess with our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, then we might as well put a “going out of business” sign on the entrance to Colorado.

Like telling tales of the boogeyman around the campfire to frighten children, those who feed on unconstrained spending want to scare the kids too. The young in this case are those who weren’t in Colorado before we demanded simple voter consent over our own money.

Get ready for a new batch of stories on how this Chupacabra of fiscal restraint is somehow making our lives worse, and the only way to slay the monster is to attack democracy and take away our right of consent.

Look no further than U.S. Sen. Michael Bennett’s announcement of gubernatorial aspiration.

The first thing he said was he needs to be governor of Colorado to protect us from the current, unprecedented threat to democracy, being President Donald Trump. The second thing he said was we need to attack democracy to get rid of TABOR. I’m sorry, “reform” TABOR.

He will save our democratic right to vote by taking away our democratic right to vote.

He and the rest of the taking coalition find it nauseating to ask voters for consent to commandeer and spend even more of their livelihoods. They never mention with TABOR they can still grow the size of government as large as they like! All they have to do is… wait for it, because it is so very terrifying… ask us first.

They can raise the taxes to 100% of what we earn. All they must do is ask us first. Increase debt so much our great great great grandchildren will still be paying it off. Just ask our consent.

They refuse to accept that no means no. So, they need to find a way where they no longer must ask at all.

Our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights is the very expression of direct democracy. We need to be absolutely clear on what this coming assault against our right to say no is. This is an attack on democracy itself.

To continue reading the rest of this story, please click (HERE) to go to Colorado Politics

#HandsOffTABOR
#DontBeFooled
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#TABOR
#FollowTheLaw
#FeesAreTaxes
#VoteOnFees
#ReplaceThemAllForNotFollowingVotersWishes

Apr 11

HJR 1023: Colorado lawmakers’ constitutional ignorance on display

HJR 1023: Colorado lawmakers’ constitutional ignorance on display

This article first appeared on April 9, 2025 in Complete Colorado.

To understand why some members of the Colorado legislature are unworthy of your trust, look no further than their current effort to take away your state tax refunds and abolish your right to vote on taxes, spending, and debt.

An astounding 44 of 100 lawmakers are sponsoring House Joint Resolution (HJR) 25-1023. This resolution would spend tax dollars on a lawsuit to void the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). Coloradans voted to add this valuable protection to the state Constitution in 1992.

I’ve listed the sponsors at the end of this column, so you can see who they are and what districts they so poorly represent. I’ve also included a link so you can see their party affiliation and email addresses and another link so you can find whether you live in any of their districts.

HJR 1023 displays both disdain and greed. But in this column. I’ll focus on two other displayed characteristics: One is deep ignorance among the sponsors. The other is a dull refusal to take even the easiest steps to cure that ignorance.

The problems in HJR 1023 begin in its preamble—a list of “Whereas” clauses. It reads in part as follows:

  • “WHEREAS, The “Enabling Act of Colorado” required the territory of Colorado to adopt and maintain a constitution that adopted the constitution of the United States and was “republican in form”; and
  • “WHEREAS, Under the Guarantee Clause of section 4 of article IV of the United States constitution, “the United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government”; and
  • “WHEREAS, The drafters of the United States constitution envisioned the guarantee of a republican form of government entailing a representative democracy in which legislative bodies determine policy by enacting laws through deliberation and compromise; and
  • “WHEREAS, [TABOR] removed fundamental legislative authority and power in matters of revenue and expenditure from the institutions of representative democracy, namely, the General Assembly and the policy-making bodies at all levels of local government, and instead subjected that authority and power to direct democracy, namely, plebiscite; and
  • “WHEREAS, [TABOR] has removed necessary and essential powers of its representative institutions and so deprived the state of a republican form of government . . . .”

The proposed resolution goes on to authorize a legislative lawsuit to void TABOR as unconstitutional.

 Legislative ignorance

The first “Whereas” clause is a harbinger of ignorance to come. While purporting to quote the name of the Colorado enabling act, it gets the name wrong. (The actual name was “An Act to enable the people of Colorado to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of the said State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States.”)

But let that pass.

The second “Whereas” clause misunderstands the purpose and effect of the U.S. Constitution’s Guarantee Clause. The rest of the preamble claims plebiscites are inconsistent with the republican form of government.

I’ll say more about the Guarantee Clause and the meaning of “republican form” in a later column. At this point it is sufficient to note that (1) the sponsors’ claim that plebiscites are unconstitutional already has been rejected by both the U.S. and Colorado Supreme Courts, and (2) the assertion that plebiscites are un-republican is particularly bizarre because plebiscites were both invented and perfected in governments universally acknowledged to be republican.

The plebiscite (Latin: plebis scitum) was central to the Roman republic—which was, of course, the longest lived republic in recorded history (509 – 27 BCE). Plebiscites were further developed in Switzerland, a country universally termed republican.

All three kinds of plebiscite—initiative, referendum, and recall—are recognized in parts of the current Colorado Constitution, outside the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. The constitutions of 48 other states recognize one, two, or all three forms of plebiscite.

Did the sponsors of HJR 1023 bother to check into any of this?

And did they bother to check to see what the Colorado Constitution had to say about legislative control over finance when that document was formally recognized as “republican?”

Some history

The Colorado Enabling Act was a congressional statute passed on March 3, 1875. It laid out the conditions by which the territory of Colorado could become a state. It is true that the enabling act required, consistently with the U.S. Constitution, that any proposed state constitution be “republican in form.”

Accordingly, a state constitutional convention drafted a new basic law for Colorado, and the voters ratified it. On August 1, 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant, pursuant to the authority given him by the enabling act, certified that “the fundamental conditions imposed by Congress . . . have been ratified and accepted” and that “the admission of the said State into the Union is now complete.”

This was official recognition that Colorado’s constitution as adopted in 1876 was “republican in form.” The sponsors of HJR 1023 implicitly admit this. But what they didn’t know—and didn’t bother to check—is that the document then imposed far more financial restrictions on the legislature than TABOR does. In fact, one reason TABOR was necessary was because some of the original restrictions had been weakened or abolished by amendment or by judicial error.

The financial restrictions in the 1876 Constitution were the product of hard experience. Earlier in the 19th century, state legislatures had been corrupted and had engaged in massive overspending. During the 1840s, several states even went bankrupt.

Constitutional restrains on government

Let’s look at some of the ways the Colorado Constitution then restricted what the sponsors of HJR 1025 are pleased to call the “fundamental legislative authority.”

As originally adopted, the Colorado Constitution—which, remember, everyone agreed complied with the “republican form”—contained restrictions on state taxation far more extensive than those imposed by TABOR. Specifically: Continue reading

Mar 30

Colorado Legislative binge ongoing despite billion-dollar budget gap

Colorado Legislative binge ongoing despite billion-dollar budget gap

Despite Colorado’s $1.2 billion budget deficit, increasing regulatory woes, and a souring economic outlook, the state legislature continues to proliferate new legislation that promises to increase government size and spending.

The 120-day 2025 legislative session is beyond the halfway point, and Colorado’s 35 senators and 65 representatives have introduced over 500 bills so far, with several containing significant fiscal impacts.

Using data from the Legislative Council Staff’s Fiscal Note Reports, I consolidated bills into interactive charts to display the proposed legislation’s impact on government employment, the General Fund, and the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) in FY2025-26. .

Growing government 

According to the data, all proposed legislation thus far in 2025 would add over 300 full-time equivalent (FTE) hires to the state’s payroll, reduce General Fund revenue by over $900 million, and reduce funds subject to TABOR by over $1.3 billion.

Of course, legislators will not pass all these bills, and some bills with significant fiscal impacts have already been rejected.

As previously reported in Complete Colorado, the lack of political competition in Colorado’s legislature has ushered in an unprecedented era of ballooning government expansion, and that extraordinary growth is now coming home to roost.

But this year’s budget shortfall did not appear out of thin air.

As I previously explained, Colorado’s billion-plus dollar budget hole was caused by government overspending and the shirking of fiscal responsibility and accountability.

In short, the government spent one-time federal money for COVID relief on ongoing programs, inflation continues to cool (slowing government growth as allowed by the state constitution), the cost of Medicaid continues to increase, and the legislature continues to expand special interest tax breaks.

This is while resisting transparency and accountability and instead deflecting blame onto TABOR, which progressives blame for holding back the state’s ability to offer essential services.

In reality, TABOR just reasonably limits the growth of government, forcing the state to be more efficient, effective, and responsible when spending Coloradans’ money.

Click (HERE) to read the rest of this article at Complete Colorado!

 

 

 

Mar 08

Citizen watchdogs needed for Arapahoe County 1A tax windfall

In the November, 2024 general election, Arapahoe County voters approved ballot issue 1A, removing spending limits imposed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).  Moving forward, this means county government gets to keep and spend over-collected tax revenue that would have otherwise been refunded to taxpayers.

In other words, voters gave county commissioners what amounts to a tax hike, and now it’s time to keep them accountable for it.

As part of the ballot language, a provision was included that mandates all spending of this tax revenue windfall be transparently reported.  Specifically, it requires that the new spending be included in the county’s annual independent audit, published on the county website and that it be monitored and reviewed by a “resident advisory committee.”  That’s where you come in.

The county pushed ballot measure 1A as a way to fund existing services that they claimed were potentially going to be cut due to budget shortfalls. And while I understand the need for transparency of how this massive influx of money should be spent, we must also make sure the advisory committee is up to the task and doesn’t just become a rubber stamp for political agendas and new pet projects.

According to the county website, the job of the committee is to ensure that 1A funds “are being used in alignment with their intended purpose, advocating for proper stewardship of these resources.”

If you think you’re up to that task, you should consider applying.  It’s a great opportunity to get involved in your community, while also holding your elected officials accountable to the taxpayers.

There are ten committee slots to be filled, with at least one from each county commission district.  Members serve three-year terms, with a two-term maximum.  And if you’ve ever thought about running for public office, this is a great way to get some local government experience under your belt first.

Arapahoe County voters gave up their TABOR refunds in perpetuity, now it’s time to ensure county commissioner honor that sacrifice and hold up their end of the bargain.

 

Kathleen Chandler is an Arapahoe County resident and directs the Citizen Involvement Project at the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver. She can be reached by email at Kathleen@i2i.org.

Citizen watchdogs needed for Arapahoe County 1A tax windfall – Complete Colorado

Jan 20

Herman: Colorado’s over-spending problem explained

Herman: Colorado’s over-spending problem explained

January 19, 2025 By Nash Herman

Colorado legislators are discovering first-hand the impossibility of having their cake and eating it too.

The Joint Budget Committee continues to meet with dozens of departments to reconcile an approximately $750 million budget shortfall in 2025, with some absurdly claiming that deficit is purely a result of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) at work.

Granted, it does sounds bizarre that the state must make budget cuts in a year that it is still expected to collect a surplus of revenue beyond what is allowed by TABOR. But by looking at the facts, anyone can come to see how the so-called budget “crisis” is actually a self-inflicted wound from the legislature’s relentless over-spending.

Having their cake 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Colorado received a windfall of federal funds to prop up the state economy and boost recovery.  To fund that massive stimulus, the federal government printed money, causing an increased supply of dollars chasing the same number of goods.  This in turn lead to the dollar being worth less, also known as inflation. Continue reading

Dec 21

Herman: Course correction needed for Colorado’s economic outlook

December 20, 2024 By Nash Herman

The University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business recently released their 60th annual Business Outlook for 2025, and, despite a moderate outlook  in 2025, the report includes some disturbing trends in the Colorado economy.  Let’s take a look at some of what’s going wrong.

Troubling trends

As pointed out by Denver Post business writer Aldo Svaldi, Colorado was the fifth fastest growing economy in the country in the last 15 years, but was 41st this year.

In terms of personal income growth, Colorado moved from third to 39th.

Although Colorado only moved down from sixth to 15th for employment growth, it comes with the caveat that the job gains this year were skewed toward government, education and healthcare, and leisure and hospitality.

Conversely, the growth of the high-paying professional and business services industry has continued a downward trend since 2022.

Fueled by slowing migration to Colorado and an aging population, Colorado’s labor force growth ranking also moved from sixth to 29th.

Taxes, spending and regulation

Obviously, some of the problems with Colorado’s economy are externally caused, like the lingering effects of the pandemic and subsequent inflation from federal spending.

However, I think there is still more to be said as to why Colorado’s economy seems to be stuttering now.

Colorado’s shift toward bigger government and away from the free market is why these problems are beginning to manifest. Over-regulation, over-spending, and over-taxation are the key culprits. To Coloradans who have witnessed the economy’s decline, the most noticeable difference between today and twenty years ago is that the state now more closely resembles California more than the entrepreneurial Colorado of old. Continue reading

Aug 10

Study finds special interest tax deals eating up Coloradans’ TABOR refunds

Study finds special interest tax deals eating up Coloradans’ TABOR refunds

August 9, 2024 By Savana Kascak

 

DENVER–Governor Jared Polis has consistently said he wants to lower the Colorado income tax, even claiming that legislation passed earlier this year would deliver on that promise.  But new research shows that billions of dollars in special interest tax breaks also passed this year in all likelihood means broad-based income tax relief is off the table for the foreseeable future.

Earlier this year, Governor Polis signed Senate Bill 24-228, temporarily lowering the state income tax rate, on a sliding scale, as a refund mechanism when surplus revenue under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) is more than $300 million in a given fiscal year, with the maximum rate reduction (from 4.40% to 4.25%) kicking in at a $1.5 billion surplus.

TABOR is a constitutional amendment that requires, among other things, state revenues collected in excess of of a formula of population growth plus inflation be refunded back to taxpayers, unless voters consent to forgo those refunds at the ballot box.  An income tax rate reduction is but one potential refund mechanism available to the state. Continue reading

Feb 23

Freedom Minute | Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR)

Economist Dr. Paul Prentice explains Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) amendment. TABOR allows the state budget to grow each year at population plus inflation, while giving taxpayers the ability to vote on all tax and debt increases.

Feb 23

Freedom Minute | Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about TABOR

 

Rob Natelson wrote THE BOOK on Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. As he puts it, “It’s everything you could ever want to know about TABOR.” Check it out here: https://www.i2i.org/the-colorado-taxp…