Category Archives: TABOR Refunds

Aug 07

TABOR Media Statement About HD24-1311

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MEDIA RELEASE

Contact:

            Penn Pfiffner

TABOR Committee Chairman

303-233-7731 or 303-747-7460

constecon@hotmail.com

 or info@TheTaborCommittee.com

August 8, 2024

Today the TABOR Committee relinquished hope that people would be able to vote on saving their TABOR refunds.  “There were simply not enough time and resources to collect the signatures in time for a citizen’s veto,” said Committee Director Rebecca Sopkin, who filed the ballot measure to repeal the 2024 law.

A new law establishes a new income redistribution program using about half of everyone’s TABOR refund.

TABOR was never meant to be an instrument to redistribute income.  Tax rates were to be adjusted downward to eliminate any permanent over-collections.  Refunds are legally a return of state sales taxes.    “The constitution specifically calls for returning over-collected taxes to those who pay the taxes.  You can’t tell me that someone making $15,000 a year bought $110,000 of taxable goods,” observed Committee chairman Penn Pfiffner.  The State does not impose sales taxes on purchase of housing, food or medicine.

 

The Committee explained that the income redistribution only happens if there is a TABOR refund and so why, if this program is so important to proponents, did legislators fail to place it under the general fund budget?

 

The measure, HD24-1311, diverts $684 million in the first year, using planned TABOR refunds to impose again the federal COVID program of subsidies to low-income families with children, but using new taxpayer funds at the state level.

The program will send money to recipients even beyond the taxes that the person pays.  Eligible people do not have to be taxpayers.  They do not have to be citizens!  They do not even have to reside in the state all year!

Legislators are ignoring a very important message by citizens in the landslide vote last fall against Proposition HH.  With a roar, they told the government to leave the TABOR rebates alone so that taxes over-collected by the state would be returned to the taxpayers.

Jul 25

HB1311.  New law plunders TABOR refunds.

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HB1311.  New law plunders TABOR refunds.

During the legislative session just ended, legislators passed and the governor signed a new law that establishes a new income redistribution program.
Your expected TABOR rebate from the state government over-collecting taxes was reduced and got cut nearly in half.

The new law is known as House Bill 1311, which sponsors call the Family Affordability Tax Credit (FATC).

The measure diverts $684 million in the first year, using planned TABOR refunds to give subsidies to low-income families with children.
There are formulas for how households will be treated differently, depending on the age of the child and the amount of income earned by the parent.

How did the General Assembly get away with a costly new program that you did not get to vote on?
After all, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights requires that voters must approve the retention of taxes above the TABOR limits.
Proponents claim the scheme is a method to return the surplus.

The act creates a new refundable tax credit.  Refundable means that the State will rebate to the welfare recipient money above any taxes that person owes.

This is a clear violation, as TABOR is to rebate over-collected taxes to those who paid and should be proportional when identifiable.

Income taxes are clearly identifiable.
There is no reasonable explanation that the State cannot identify who paid how much income tax and how much of a TABOR rebate that taxpayer should get.

The new law, HB1311 says:

  • Eligible people are “residents.”
  • They do not have to be taxpayers.
  • They do not have to be citizens!
  • They do not even have to reside in the state all year!

The TABOR Committee explored how to overturn HB1311 on this fall’s ballot.
Is there enough interest and funding to reverse the new law?
Action must be taken immediately and the effort is costly.

Arguments against the HB1311 program:

  • Note that HB 1311 is in addition to the “Earned” Income Tax Credit bill and the Child Care Tax Credit, which also reduce our general TABOR rebates.
  • While subsidizing families is arguably a government goal, it is done properly through welfare programs.  In Colorado with TABOR in place, that would mean funding the program under the TABOR spending limits.  It would require prioritizing the welfare subsidies within the budget imposed by the citizens.  Instead, this bill establishes a new welfare program completely reliant on state TABOR surpluses.
  • TABOR was never meant to become an instrument to redistribute income.  The concept was that tax rates would be adjusted downward to eliminate any permanent over-collections.

If this program is so important to proponents, then why restrict it to TABOR refund years?

Legislators are ignoring a very important message by citizens in the landslide negative vote last fall against Proposition HH.
With a roar, they told the government to leave the TABOR rebates alone so that taxes over-collected by the state would be returned to the taxpayers.

A philosophic core of the Progressives, who control the current Colorado General Assembly, is the leveling of income.
This bill, HB1311, is a mechanism to redistribute income through the TABOR tax rebates.

We need to overturn this horrendous bill at the ballot box.

Will you join us in trying to do so and restore your TABOR surplus refunds?

#ColoradoRejectedPropHH
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#DontBeFooled
#VoteOnTaxesAndFees
#FeesAreTaxes
#TABOR
#FollowTheMoney
#FollowTheLaw
#ThankGodForTABOR

Jul 15

Jefferson County’s commissioners seek elimination of TABOR refunds — again

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Boxes of ballots await tabulation in Jefferson County from the Primary Election in June.

Deborah Grigsby/Denver Gazette

 

For the third time in five years, Jefferson County’s elected officials are asking voters to allow the local government to spend all of the revenue that it collects above the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights limit, thereby eliminating refunds to taxpayers.

For fiscal year 2024, that refund amount is estimated to be $54.4 million.

Last year, the county refunded $39.4 million to roughly 210,000 property taxpayers.

The county’s voters rejected the idea twice — in 2019 and 2022 — but the county’s commissioners this month insisted that, after “engaging” with the public through “both qualitative and quantitative research,” voters need to decide the question again.

“It is the spirit of TABOR to bring questions like this to the voters and let them decide,” Commissioner Andy Kerr said in a statement. “TABOR demands that community members engage with their government to address challenges like this.”

“I have great pride in Jefferson County, but we’re falling behind in essential county services, and that’s where we come in as county fiscal stewards,” Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper said during the meeting that sent the measure to the November ballot.

Under TABOR, local voters may allow their respective government to “debruce” — that is, permit a county, municipality or school district to eliminate the TABOR spending limit, and then to retain and spend all of the revenue it has collected.

Jefferson County is among a few counties that have not “debruced.” A majority of Colorado’s 64 counties have done so.

Last week, commissioners Kerr, Dahlkemper and Tracy Kraft-Tharp voted to place the debrucing question on the ballot. Continue reading →

Jun 25

TABOR Committee Press Statement About RTD Ballot Question

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June 25, 2024

 

 

                                                                                                                                Contact: Penn Pfiffner
Phone: 303-233-7731
Email: constecon@hotmail.com

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

The Regional Transportation District (RTD) is proposing a 2024 ballot measure to permanently eliminate TABOR spending and revenue caps. The RTD has retained hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer’s TABOR rebates over recent years. Yet, the RTD Board wants to claim this proposed ballot measure isn’t a tax increase.

The TABOR Committee opposes the RTD ballot measure to permanently eliminate taxpayer’s protections.

  1. The ballot language doesn’t legally comply with TABOR by clearly expressing the amount of the tax increase. The district has retained millions of TABOR rebates, the proposed measure is a tax increase.
  2. TABOR limits waivers to four years, allowing for voter review. The RTD ballot measure permanently eliminates taxpayer protections. It’s a forever tax increase with a blank check.

 

TABOR Committee, board chairman Penn Pfiffner stated: “The Regional Transportation District (RTD) is one of the largest tax collectors in Colorado. RTD wants to use misleading ballot language to eliminate TABOR rebates. This is clearly a tax increase and a blank check to a government district that has failed to deliver on FasTracks campaign promises. Taxpayers would be best served getting their TABOR rebates starting in 2025 to use on a transportation method that fits their lives.”

 

The TABOR Committee was formed in 2009 to protect the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).
DefendTABOR.com

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Jun 13

Voters will likely be asked to permanently spare RTD from TABOR limits

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Voters will likely be asked to permanently spare RTD from TABOR limits

By Nathaniel Minor

  • Jun. 12, 2024, 5:16 pm

 

 

 

 

Kevin J. Beaty/DenveriteAn RTD train slowly approaches the Belleview Avenue station in south Denver. June 6, 2024.

The Regional Transportation District will likely add a question to the November 2024 ballot asking voters to permanently allow it to keep revenue that would otherwise be refunded to taxpayers under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

An RTD board committee unanimously endorsed the “debrucing” ballot question on Tuesday, a reference to TABOR’s author Douglas Bruce.

RTD’s full board will vote in late June on whether to send the question to voters. The agency currently has two different exemptions from TABOR for different parts of its budget; one expires later this year, the other in 2050. The ballot measure would ask voters to spare RTD’s entire budget from TABOR limits permanently.

Board chair Erik Davidson said if the soon-to-expire exemption were to lapse, RTD might have to refund tens of millions of dollars a year to taxpayers.

He also cited recent polling commissioned by RTD that showed nearly 70 percent support for the ballot measure among respondents.

“To me, it’s an easy answer to say that we proceed,” Davidson told the committee on Tuesday.

Most voters know TABOR as the reason Coloradans vote on taxes. But it does a lot more than that.

The lengthy constitutional amendment voters passed in 1992 also puts restrictions on how much revenue every government in Colorado can collect every year. Any excess revenue beyond a limit set by formulas within TABOR must be refunded to voters. TABOR also contains a “ratchet effect” that can lead to tighter limits and bigger refunds after a recession. Continue reading →

May 30

NTUF Defends Unanimous Win Protecting Taxpayers from Doubled Property Taxes

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NTUF Defends Unanimous Win Protecting Taxpayers from Doubled Property Taxes

by Tyler Martinez  May 29, 2024

Our Taxpayer Defense Center continues to fight for residents in Northern Colorado. Back in March, in a major victory for taxpayers, a unanimous panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals agreed with us that a doubling of the property taxes in a few Northern Colorado counties violated the Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR).  But the case continues, because the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District has now sought review from the Colorado Supreme Court. We recently filed our Brief In Opposition.

The case, Aranci v. Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District, involves residents challenging a tax increase by the Water District, arguing it violates Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). The controversy arose when the Water District doubled its mill levy in 2019 without seeking voter approval. The residents filed a class action lawsuit, asserting that this increase violated TABOR, which requires prior voter approval for any tax rate increases, and seeking a refund for what was illegally collected.

The District Court initially ruled in favor of the Water District, finding no violation of TABOR under a narrow exception articulated in Huber v. Colorado Mining Association, which was about a ministerial tax adjustment based on inflation. However, upon appeal, the Court of Appeals unanimously reversed, declaring the mill levy increase was not ministerial and holding for the residents on five independent grounds.  Continue reading →

May 29

Americans in One State Could See Tax Refunds Significantly Drop

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The Colorado Legislature is redistributing your TABOR surplus as they see fit instead of rightfully returning the surplus to you.
#ReplaceThemAllForNotFollowingVotersWishes
#TABOR
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#DontBeFooled
#KillHD24-1311
#HandsOffTABOR

Americans in One State Could See Tax Refunds Significantly Drop

Colorado residents can score an extra check this year worth up to $1,600 if they qualify for the TABOR refund, but the state program could see refunds drop if a new bill goes through.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis and several lawmakers have proposed SB24-228, which would cause a temporary income tax reduction and cuts the sales tax rate. The new bill would get rid of the automatic TABOR refund and instead offer the rebate only in certain years with high surpluses.

If the bill passes, the state will lower income tax rates based on the amount of money it collects, and when the surplus reaches $1.5 billion, the income tax rate would drop by 0.15 percent. So the more money the state takes in, the lower residents’ income tax rates will be.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis speaks at the opening day of Fan Expo at the Colorado Convention Center on June 30, 2023, in Denver. Polis proposed a new law that affects residents’ TABOR amounts over the… More THOMAS COOPER/GETTY IMAGES

The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refund currently provides $800 for single filers and $1,600 for couples filing jointly.

“TABOR is the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and provides a refund when the state collects more tax revenue than allowed under the statute,” Kevin Thompson, a finance expert and the founder/CEO of 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek. “This helps residents by giving money back to them when the state collects tax revenues over the stated amount based on the statute.”

To continue reading this TABOR article, click (HERE) to go to Newsweek.

May 23

2024 Colorado Legislative Session: TABOR Takings Tracker

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May 17, 2024 | 2024 Research, Featured, Recent Research, Taxes & Fees

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PDF OF FULL REPORT

Author: Erik Gamm and Chris Brown

TABOR Takings Tracker

Legislators placed Coloradans’ TABOR refunds squarely in their crosshairs during the 2024 legislative session, having passed over 100 bills that would slash the TABOR refund to a quarter of its projected size if signed into law. Amid a period of state revenue growth in unprecedented excess of the Referendum C spending cap and a state budget larger than $40 billion for the first time in history, the state’s legislative majority has seen fit to circumvent the standard refund mechanisms through a long list of proposed tax rate reductions, tax credits, and redistribution efforts. Since the last issue of this report five days before the end of session, five TABOR-impacting bills were defeated, four new ones were introduced, and several others were amended heavily.

By the end of the legislative session, lawmakers passed 101 bills that will affect TABOR refunds. Most of these redirect money out of refunds towards targeted tax reductions for specific groups, mainly families and low-income Coloradans. Through such measures, the state will diminish taxpayers’ agency to decide, whether by saving, investing, or donating to charity, how best to allocate money that they would normally be owed. Voters rejected Proposition HH, which proposed to take TABOR refunds in exchange for limited property tax relief, just last November.

  • 101 bills were passed during the 2024 legislative session that, if signed into law, will reduce projected TABOR refunds by a combined $2.8 billion (47%) of the $6 billion projected between FY24 and FY26.
    • These bills propose to reduce the TABOR refund by a combined $523 million in FY24, $1.06 billion in FY25, and $1.25 billion in FY26. The recent announcement that an additional $67 million in TABOR refunds is owed to taxpayers due to an accounting error is not reflected in this report.
    • The reduction in refunds over the next three years is similar in size to the FY23 TABOR refund. Of the $3.28 billion available, $3.1 billion was distributed as direct payments of $800 to each Colorado taxpayer. The remaining $180 million was diverted via an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit approved during the 2023 session.
    • The two most impactful bills from the 2024 session (see the list below) will reduce TABOR refunds by $1.8 billion, more than 42%, between FY25 and FY26. The rest of the bills would reduce refunds by a total of $391 million (9%) over that period.
    • Some major bills, like SB24-166, were lost in the final days of the session.
  • SB24-228, which is expected to be signed into law shortly, proposes to change the TABOR refund mechanism by lowering the state income tax rate according to the level of excess state revenue. When it comes into effect, Coloradans’ TABOR refunds will be partially replaced by income tax reductions.

The figure below shows projected TABOR refunds in the next three fiscal years and the amounts of those refunds that each bill would remove.

2024 legislation will reduce the current fiscal year’s TABOR refund to $1.3 billion, which is 71% of the latest projection.

2024 Colorado Legislative Session: TABOR Takings Tracker

Continue reading →

May 23

EDITORIAL: Faux refunds preempt Colorado’s taxpayers

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    • The Gazette editorial board

052024-dg-editorial-1

The Colorado State Capitol (Gazette file photo)
Our state government is required under Colorado’s constitution to refund excess tax revenue. Any year-to-year increases in collections above the rates of inflation and population growth combined must be returned to the public. Hence, taxpayers’ “TABOR refunds.”

When it comes to the actual process for returning the money, however, there’s a lot of wiggle room. Too much.

Exhibit A is a package of bills adopted near the end of the 2024 legislative session earlier this month. As we noted here then, the legislation hijacks Coloradans’ TABOR refunds, doling them out through a combination of temporary tax cuts and credits. It further complicates a refund mechanism that already was complicated enough thanks to previous legislative tinkering.

Continue reading →