Category Archives: TABOR news story

Mar 06

Section 20. The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.(1) General provisions

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Section 20. The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.(1) General provisions. This section takes effect December 31, 1992 or as stated. Its preferred interpretation shall reasonably restrain most the growth of government. All provisions are self-executing and severable and supersede conflicting state constitutional, state statutory, charter, or other state or local provisions. Other limits on district revenue, spending, and debt may be weakened only by future voter approval. Individual or class action enforcement suits may be filed and shall have the highest civil priority of resolution. Successful plaintiffs are allowed costs and reasonable attorney fees, but a district is not unless a suit against it be ruled frivolous. Revenue collected, kept, or spent illegally since four full fiscal years before a suit is filed shall be refunded with 10% annual simple interest from the initial conduct. Subject to judicial review, districts may use any reasonable method for refunds under this section, including temporary tax credits or rate reductions. Refunds need not be proportional when prior payments are impractical to identify or return. When annual district revenue is less than annual payments on general obligation bonds, pensions, and final court judgments, (4) (a) and (7) shall be suspended to provide for the deficiency.

(2) Term definitions. Within this section:

(a) “Ballot issue” means a non-recall petition or referred measure in an election.

(b) “District” means the state or any local government, excluding enterprises.

(c) “Emergency” excludes economic conditions, revenue shortfalls, or district salary or fringe benefit increases.

(d) “Enterprise” means a government-owned business authorized to issue its own revenue bonds and receiving under 10% of annual revenue in grants from all Colorado state and local governments combined. Continue reading →

Mar 06

TABOR is Article X Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution

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Section 20

Text of Section 20:The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights

(1) General provisions. This section takes effect December 31, 1992 or as stated. Its preferred interpretation shall reasonably restrain most the growth of government. All provisions are self-executing and severable and supersede conflicting state constitutional, state statutory, charter, or other state or local provisions. Other limits on district revenue, spending, and debt may be weakened only by future voter approval. Individual or class action enforcement suits may be filed and shall have the highest civil priority of resolution. Successful plaintiffs are allowed costs and reasonable attorney fees, but a district is not unless a suit against it be ruled frivolous. Revenue collected, kept, or spent illegally since four full fiscal years before a suit is filed shall be refunded with 10% annual simple interest from the initial conduct. Subject to judicial review, districts may use any reasonable method for refunds under this section, including temporary tax credits or rate reductions. Refunds need not be proportional when prior payments are impractical to identify or return. When annual district revenue is less than annual payments on general obligation bonds, pensions, and final court judgments, (4) (a) and (7) shall be suspended to provide for the deficiency.

(2) Term definitions. Within this section:

(a) “Ballot issue” means a non-recall petition or referred measure in an election.
(b) “District” means the state or any local government, excluding enterprises.
(c) “Emergency” excludes economic conditions, revenue shortfalls, or district salary or fringe benefit increases.
(d) “Enterprise” means a government-owned business authorized to issue its own revenue bonds and receiving under 10% of annual revenue in grants from all Colorado state and local governments combined.
(e) “Fiscal year spending” means all district expenditures and reserve increases except, as to both, those for refunds made in the current or next fiscal year or those from gifts, federal funds, collections for another government, pension contributions by employees and pension fund earnings, reserve transfers or expenditures, damage awards, or property sales.

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Mar 06

Yes, Colorado’s hospital fee plan is legal

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Yes, Colorado’s hospital fee plan is legal

Colorado legislature should reclassify hospital provider fee

By The Denver Post Editorial Board

POSTED:   03/05/2016 

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman.

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman. (Denver Post file)

 

Democrats who had accused Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman of undue partisanship might have to rethink their thesis after her announcement last week that it is perfectly legal to adopt a budget manuever the governor has proposed and GOP lawmakers have denounced as a violation of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

Not so fast, Coffman said in effect to doubting lawmakers. Based on the language of the constitution and various court rulings, the state could indeed legally reclassify the hospital provider fee to free up $200 million in additional spending under TABOR, her legal analysis concluded.

“The debate over whether to create a hospital provider fee enterprise can now shift back to the General Assembly,” she added.

Unfortunately, leading Republicans in the assembly are still raising dubious legal objections to the plan.

 

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

Mar 05

Republican leader: TABOR issue rides on who should decide

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Rep. Brian DelGrosso. R-Loveland

Rep. Brian DelGrosso,
R-Loveland

House Republican leader Brian DelGrosso of Loveland said it’s time for “honest fiscal policy” and not TABOR accounting gimmicks to pay for Colorado’s roads and bridges.

DelGrosso has penned an editorial laying out his — and presumably the Republican caucus’ — position on a Democratic plan to reclassify the state’s hospital provider fee to get it out from under a revenue cap voters approved in 1992 when they added the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights to the state constitution.

The move also would negate state refunds worth between about $37 up to $111 per taxpayer next year.

“Taking more money from taxpayers without their consent will not solve our challenges,” DelGrosso writes. “We have the money and our budget is growing, but using some budget maneuver is definitely no substitute for honest fiscal policy.”

 

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

Mar 05

TABOR Refunds Targeted By Proposed Ballot Measure

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Dan Ritchie, former chancellor of the University of Denver and current co-chair of Building a Better Colorado, announces a push to get a measure on the 2016 ballot that would allow state government to keep more revenue.

Tax refunds or more money for schools and roads? That’s how a coalition frames a debate it hopes to spark in Colorado.

A group of bipartisan civic leaders announced Friday that it’s starting a campaign to get a measure on the 2016 ballot asking voters to ease a revenue cap on state government.

“We are really determined to get something done about this,” said Dan Ritchie, co-chair of Building a Better Colorado, a nonpartisan coalition that toured the state having conversations about Colorado’s political system and constitution.

If passed, the measure’s backers say state funds could be spent fixing potholes and reducing class sizes in schools instead of being refunded to taxpayers.

“Our education needs are not being met and we are not maintaining our road system and streets,” said Ritchie, after making the announcement at Great Education Colorado’s annual conference. “We should be planning for the future in 20 years and that applies to our kids, not just our roads.”

Supporters acknowledge that such a measure wouldn’t fix an underlying structural problem with Colorado’s budget.

“[But] the first rule of getting out of a hole is to stop digging,” said Lisa Weil, who directs Great Education Colorado, a non-profit that advocates for more funding for public schools.

The ballot initiative will likely draw opposition from advocates of small government who support the revenue cap. And backers will need to collect 98,000 signatures to get the measure on the 2016 ballot.

That group’s leaders say the state’s financial future is at stake.

At meetings held across the state last summer, they focused on problems they see with the Taxpayer Bill of Rights — TABOR. Voters enshrined the measure in the state constitution in 1992 as a way to limit the growth of government.

Continue reading →

Mar 03

EDITORIAL: Work with Hick to widen I-25

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By: The Gazette editorial

March 2, 2016 Updated: March 2, 2016 at 7:00 pm

I-25 Traffic

Traffic on I-25

Fiscal conservatives, who wisely defend Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, have a renewed option to fix highways and fund education without a tax hike. A new door opened for granting enterprise status to the state’s Hospital Provider Fee when Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman issued an opinion saying the move would not violate the state constitution.

The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, an amendment to the constitution, requires state government to return surpluses to individuals when revenues reach a ceiling established by a complex formula that factors inflation and population growth.

Though TABOR has protected the public from excessive spending, taxation and runaway government growth, the Hospital Provider Fee creates a technical glitch and an illusion of state revenue.

Since 2009, hospitals have paid fees to the state. The cash is used to obtain matching funds from the federal government. The fees and federal funds, combined, are returned to hospitals to help fund indigent care.

Though state government does not have discretion with the money, it appears on the books and contributes to tripping TABOR refunds. Gov. John Hickenlooper wants the Legislature to establish an enterprise fund to collect the fees, which would exempt them from counting toward the refund cap.

Senate President Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, was cautiously open to considering the idea when Hickenlooper first pitched it early last year. In pursuit of pulling a bill title to create the enterprise in January, Cadman asked for a legal opinion from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Legal Services – a public firm of several dozen lawyers who craft all legislation. The attorneys handed Cadman an opinion they had written for Democrats in 2013. It said the proposed enterprise would violate TABOR, and it minced no words. Cadman quickly staged a news conference to publicize the opinion and announce he would not support the governor’s plan.

Tuesday’s development could change the outlook. The state’s highest-ranking law enforcement official, a Republican, says enterprise status would not violate the law. Coffman is an unabashed defender of TABOR.

Though conflicting legal opinions cloud the issue, it seems like common sense to sequester hospital fees from TABOR calculations. It is blatant show money, which does not constitute sustained growth of government coffers. Though part of an unseemly federal smoke-and-mirrors scheme to backfill Medicaid, the funds should not trip refunds that were intended to prevent legitimate growth in state revenues.

With the proposed enterprise, state government might retain more than $700 million a year, which could do a lot for our roads.

After hearing of the attorney general’s opinion, Hickenlooper said he would sit down with Cadman and try to strike a compromise. The two men should start with a plan to ensure widening Interstate 25 between Monument and Castle Rock with a portion of the retained revenue. The project would benefit southern Colorado, Denver and the state’s economy. Lock it in by issuing bonds. Republicans also should ensure some of the money benefits K-12 education. And, as Republicans hold all the remaining cards, Cadman should demand better regulations for recreational pot and tuition tax credits for kids.

Retention of refunds, with a simple accounting maneuver, could help Coloradans without raising taxes. Before they make it so, in the spirit of checks and balances, the Senate majority should commandeer control of the funds.

the gazette

Related:

Colorado attorney general OKs removing hospital fee from TABOR

 

http://gazette.com/editorial-work-with-hick-to-widen-i-25/article/1571323

Mar 03

AG: hospital fees can be enterprise; money helps hospitals with Medicaid, indigent care

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BY PETER STRESCINO THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Published: February 29, 2016; Last modified: March 1, 2016 10:34PM
Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman on Monday said that creating an enterprise designation for the hospital provider fee is constitutional. The program, which raised $1 billion in 2014-15, can be exempted from the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights computations without violating the amendment.
Coffman’s announcement means she believes the program that collects fees from hospitals to draw matching federal dollars would meet the three tests needed to qualify as a “government-owned business” outside TABOR’s spending limits.

“I think it’s the right decision,” said Mike Baxter, Parkview Medical Center’s president and CEO, who has openly worried about cuts in federal funding coming back to Parkview. The money helps pay costs for uncompensated care. Hospitals pay into the fund. Parkview paid $27 million to the fund and received $43 million after the federal boost. St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center paid $14 million and received $27 million back, according to The Denver Post.

“We’re pleased with today’s opinion from the attorney general,” said Brian Moore, president and CEO of St. Mary-Corwin. “We have been in favor of moving the hospital provider fee to enterprise status in an effort to protect our ability to serve our community.” Continue reading →

Mar 02

Hullinghorst to introduce Colorado hospital-provider fee bill despite continued GOP opposition

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Colorado House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst is wasting no time in advancing her efforts to turn the hospital provider fee into an enterprise fund — announcing Tuesday that she will introduce a bill to make that move.

The new bill comes just one day after the state’s attorney general said she considers such a maneuver to be legal and constitutional.
Colorado House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst and Senate President Bill Cadman speak together in times of more agreement — at the official bill-signing for the 2015-16 state budget.

Bill Cadman & Dickey Hullinghorse

Colorado House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst and Senate President Bill Cadman speak… more

Ed Sealover | Denver Business Journal

But while Hullinghorst may have a legal opinion on her side from Republican AG Cynthia Coffman, she remains no where close to agreement with the top Republicans in the Legislature, Senate President Bill Cadman. Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, went as far as to say Tuesday that any bill from the Gunbarrel Democrat is dead on arrival if it, like her failed 2015 effort on the subject, it does not reset the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights revenue cap by pulling the current provider-fee revenues out of the calculations and lowering that cap in future years.

The opposing reactions continue the pattern of the past two months, in which supporters of turning the seven-year-old fee into an enterprise fund — and thus freeing up more money in the budget for transportation and education — believe they have found an opening through which they can move forward, only to be reminded by Cadman that the majority caucus in the Senate feels the proposals to unconstitutional or at least unwise.

The fee, charged to hospitals for each night they keep a patient in a bed, generates more than $1 billion in combined state and federal funds to increase Medicaid rolls in this state, but it also is expected next fiscal year to push the state over the TABOR revenue cap and require the state to refund tax money to residents. Continue reading →

Mar 02

Blake: Funding transportation needs adds fuel to the fire

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Blake: Funding transportation needs adds fuel to the fire

March 1, 2016 4:50 PM· By Peter Blake

File photo: Todd Shepherd

File photo: Todd Shepherd

If you are looking for an opportunity to pay higher taxes, this is your year.

Already on Colorado’s 2016 ballot is a single-payer health plan that would boost the state income tax rate to 14.63 percent, highest in the nation.

On its heels comes a planned initiative sponsored by the Colorado Contractors Association, which wants more money to build roads and mass transit projects.

Not by increasing the state gasoline tax, now 22 cents a gallon, but by increasing the state sales tax, now 2.9 percent, by up to three-quarters of a cent.

The final figure has yet to be determined, said Bill Ray, spokesman for the planned initiative. The organizers have until March 25 to propose their final ballot language.

They are working backwards from a goal of raising $500 million to $600 million more per year, which under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) has to be listed on the ballot question. They will consider the state’s current revenue stream and then figure out how much higher the tax rate must be to raise the money.

If taxes are a must, user-pay levies are generally considered the fairest. Those who drive their cars over the roads pay their taxes at the pump. Those who don’t drive don’t have to pay.

But earlier polling by the CCA determined that an increase in the gasoline tax would be “roundly rebuffed” by voters, said Ray.

Continue reading →

Feb 29

Colorado AG: hospital provider fee OK as an enterprise fund; change could help with road funding

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Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman issued a formal legal opinion today that says the Legislature can convert the state’s hospital provider fee into an enterprise fund as a way to boost available tax money for road improvements and education.

In an unusual move, Coffman’s opinion backs Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper’s position rather than her Republican legislative leaders on the controversial issue.

Cynthia Coffman, Colorado attorney general

Cynthia Coffman, Colorado attorney general

The question posed was whether the General Assembly could establish an enterprise fund with the hospital provider fee revenues and have it be exempt from revenue limitations of the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Coffman wrote in an opinion released today that there are three considerations that determine an entity’s status as a government-owned business, which is one of the requirements for establishing enterprise funds under statute. An enterprise fund has to:

  • Lack the power to tax;
  • Provide government services in exchange for involuntary fees levied on service recipients; and
  • Be financially distinct from its parent agency.

“Today’s formal opinion concerning Colorado’s Hospital Provider Fee is a thoroughly researched legal analysis based on the language of the constitution and informed by Colorado court interpretations of TABOR,” Coffman said in a statement. “It answers a narrow legal question and outlines the minimum requirements under current law to create a ‘government-owned business’ under TABOR.” Continue reading →