Category Archives: Legal Issues

May 09

Colorado legislature moves transportation bond issue to 2020, leaving TABOR refund issue alone on the 2019 ballot

Posted on by

Colorado legislature moves transportation bond issue to 2020, leaving TABOR refund issue alone on the 2019 ballot

By Jackie Mitchell
In Ballot measures
May 6, 2019 at 11:20 PM

On May 2, 2019, the Colorado state legislature gave final approval to Senate Bill 263, which moved a legislatively referred bond issue from the 2019 ballot to the 2020 ballot. The bond issue was designed to authorize the state to issue transportation revenue anticipation notes (TRANs)—a specific type of bond debt—in the amount of $2.337 billion with no increase to any taxes. Proceeds from the debt would be credited 85 percent to the State Highway Fund and 15 percent to the Multimodal Transportation Options Fund. The maximum repayment cost of the TRANs debt would be $3.25 billion, and it would have to be repaid fully within 20 years. Senate Bill 263 also amended the bond issue to reduce the amount of TRANs that would be authorized from 2.337 billion to 1.837 billion and make other changes.
In the Senate, all three no votes came from Republican Senators. In the House, Republicans were split with 11 voting in favor and 13 voting against. Thirty-nine of 41 House Democrats voted in favor except for two Democratic Representatives who were excused from voting.
Still on the 2019 ballot is a measure to allow the state to retain excess revenue it is currently required to refund under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) to provide funding for transportation and education. The revenue would be used for transportation.
Democratic Senator Rachel Zenzinger of Colorado’s 19th Senate District said, “If we were to move forward this year (with the bonding measure), the same thing we saw last fall — with two competing ballot measures on transportation — would sink them both.”
May 06

State could go off a fiscal cliff

Posted on by

State could go off a fiscal cliff

By: Barry W Poulson

May 5, 2019

Barry Poulson

Colorado has created a fiscal cliff; the state is woefully unprepared for the revenue shortfall that will accompany the next recession. Citizens might be surprised to learn that the state has been pursuing imprudent policies that will result in a fiscal crisis when the next recession hits. It is important to understand how the fiscal cliff was created and what we can do about it.

Over the past two decades, Colorado has weakened the fiscal constraints imposed by the Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights. TABOR limits the rate of growth in state spending to the sum of inflation plus population growth, regardless of the amount of revenue the state takes in.

But most state revenue is exempt from the TABOR limit. The exempt funds include the revenue from enterprises and the fees collected by government agencies, which have grown rapidly over this period. As a result, over the past decade TABOR has not constrained the growth in spending, and this year the state will spend virtually every dollar of revenue it takes in. Continue reading →

May 06

Sharf: Opponents of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights prove why we need it

Posted on by

Sharf: Opponents of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights prove why we need it

May 6, 2019 By Joshua Sharf

Look at the list of organizations supporting House Bill 19-1257, the bill to ask Colorado voters to permanently repeal Colorado’s Taxpayer ‘s Bill of Rights (TABOR) spending limits. No fewer than 60 groups hired lobbyists to push for the measure, which will appear on November’s state-wide ballot.

Everyone is represented – governments, non-profits, business groups, unions, school districts, government employees.

Everyone is represented.

Well, everyone except the taxpayer.

Which is why we need a constitutional amendment protecting the taxpayer in the first place.

While TABOR has a number of provisions designed to limit government, there are three main ones. The first requires a citizen vote on all general tax increases – income tax, payroll tax, sales & property tax, etc. Fees directly related to delivering a specific government service are exempt. So-called enterprises, which do not receive general tax revenue, are also allowed to raise their fees and charges without a vote, and what’s more, their revenue doesn’t count towards the overall cap the way than regular fees do. Continue reading →

Apr 30

Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights Should Be a Model for the Nation

Posted on by

Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights Should Be a Model for the Nation

Requiring voters’ consent to increase taxes or debt is a very effective check on the expansion of government.
Monday, June 18, 2018
Daniel J. Mitchell
Daniel J. Mitchell
A balanced budget requirement is neither necessary nor sufficient for good fiscal policy.

If you want proof for that assertion, check out states such as Illinois, California, and New Jersey. They all have provisions to limit red ink, yet there is more spending (and more debt) every year. There are also anti-deficit rules in nations such as Greece, France, and Italy, and those countries are not exactly paragons of fiscal discipline.

The real gold standard for good fiscal policy is my Golden Rule. And the best way to make sure government doesn’t grow faster than the private sector is to have a constitutional rule limiting the growth of government.

That’s why I’m a big fan of the “debt brake” in Switzerland’s constitution and Article 107 in Hong Kong’s constitution.

And it’s also why the 49 other states, assuming they want an effective fiscal rule, should look at Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) as a role model.

Continue reading →

Apr 26

Hospital Provider Fee Lawsuit Appeal Update

Posted on by

This filing does not contain the substance of our argument and is administrative in nature.
Don’t be intimidated that the first document is 55 pages long – it contains as an appendix the entire Order issued by the lower court which makes up the overwhelming volume of this Notice.

The Defendants also filed an appeal of Judge Buchanan’s ruling that our team has standing.
Wrong-headed, to be sure, but expected.
That filing is also attached here and also only an administrative step.

There has to be an exchange of documents before the attorneys will be informed of a schedule to submit arguments to the Court of Appeals.

That could take another seven weeks

All of this is public information but we wanted our TABOR supporters to be updated.

Penn

 

Click here to see the Hospital Provider Fee Notice of Appeal

Click here to see the Hospital Provider Fee Defendants Challenge of Standing by The TABOR Foundation

Apr 25

Coloradans may face 4 spending questions this year. Will new nicotine tax measure overload the ballot?

Posted on by
Michael Fields@MichaelCLFields Tweeted:
The state budget went up by $1.6B again this year. Government has enough money already.
 

Coloradans may face 4 spending questions this year. Will new nicotine tax measure overload the ballot?

The proposal, announced Wednesday by Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic state lawmakers, would set a uniform nicotine tax at 62 percent. That would lift the taxes on a package of cigarettes to $2.49 from 84 cents.

The Colorado Sun — jesse@coloradosun.com

If an 11th-hour Democratic effort to raise nicotine taxes debuted Wednesday makes it to the ballot, Coloradans could face as many as four consequential spending questions when they vote in November.

How those efforts could interact remains unknown, but discussion is already underway about the potential consequences of asking voters to make so many revenue-generating decisions at once and whether questions might counteract each other.

Also top of mind: Colorado voters in 2018 rejected tax increases aimed at paying for transportation and education, two of the most cash-poor and motivating issues in the state. So the question is, what’s different now?

“Not only are there the statewide (revenue-increase questions), but once you get into the municipalities, there are going to be even more,” said Courtney Sievers, pollster with the Republican firm Magellan Strategies.

Continue reading →