Category Archives: Taxes

Mar 24

Water district subject to TABOR vote requirement

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Water district subject to TABOR vote requirement

Water districts are like all other government entities that are subject to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights when it comes to voters approving tax increases, the Colorado Appeals Court ruled Thursday.

In a precedent-setting case out of Logan County in the northeast corner of the state, a three-judge panel overturned a lower court’s decision that the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District that serves four Eastern Plains counties violated TABOR by doubling its mill levy starting in 2019 because it did so without voter approval.

The lower court had ruled in favor of the district, saying its raising of the levy from 0.5 mills to 1 mill did not violate that 1992 constitutional amendment because the water district was formed before TABOR was approved, and is required under the state’s Water Conservancy Act to set a mill levy based on a mandatory and non-discretionary formula.

The water district tried to argue that the Colorado Supreme Court, in Huber v. Colorado Mining Association, allows such mill levy increases because of that formula.

But a three-judge panel said that high court ruling applies to entities that aren’t making a legislative or governmental act for a tax-rate increase, but a non-discretionary duty under pre-TABOR taxing statutes, such as the Colorado Department of Revenue making legally required adjustments to severance taxes. Continue reading →

Mar 24

TABOR: The enduring success story empowering Colorado taxpayers

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TABOR: The enduring success story empowering Colorado taxpayers

BY BARRY W. POULSON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR – 03/22/24 7:00 AM ET

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

The dome of the State Capitol shines in the early morning sun Friday, May 28, 2021, in downtown Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

 

Even as economists tout a soft landing for the U.S. economy, Americans are facing sticker shock at the grocery store, the gas pump, and fast-food restaurants, among other places.

After a long bout of double-digit inflation, not unlike that of the 1970s. We have learned once again that unconstrained growth in federal spending funded by borrowing and accommodative monetary policy eventually triggers high inflation.

In response to stagflation in the 1970s, Congress enacted statutory fiscal rules designed to balance the budget and stabilize debt. The Federal Reserve also pursued tighter monetary polies to stabilize prices. In the 1990s, a period referred to as “The Great Moderation,” the federal government achieved sustainable debt levels and low rates of inflation.

Unfortunately, over the last two decades, the federal government largely abandoned these fiscal and monetary policies. Federal spending has far outpaced the growth in national income, and federal debt has grown at an unsustainable rate. The statutory fiscal rules designed to constrain federal spending are routinely circumvented and suspended.

The Federal Reserve has again used monetary policy to accommodate these fiscal policies, resulting in wide swings in the rate of inflation. It is difficult to argue that we are experiencing a soft landing and that all is well. A more realistic forecast is that over the next decade we will again experience stagflation.

But there is a bright spot in this gloomy outlook.

In response to stagflation in the 1970s, citizens launched state and local tax revolts. Beginning with property tax limitations in California, citizens began to challenge profligate fiscal policies at the state and local level. Using the initiative and referendum, citizens enacted tax and expenditure limits to constrain fiscal policies. Continue reading →

Mar 22

A TABOR Lawsuit Victory

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Residents in the northeast corner of Colorado contacted the TABOR Committee several years ago about a tax increase imposed without voter approval by their local Water Conservancy District.  Our organization kicked off the response with an attorney’s letter warning the District to reverse course.  It did not.  After other subsequent efforts, a lawsuit was filed by those residents.  Two public interest law firms have done the legal work.

Although a lower court allowed the District to increase taxes, the very good news is that the Colorado Court of Appeals recently ruled for the taxpayers!  The case still can be appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court, and if not heard there, the trial court must still resolve several questions, so the lawsuit will continue.

The importance here is that the Colorado court system has confirmed the primacy of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and protected the taxpayers in that District.

 

Penn Pfiffner
Colorado TABOR

Mar 15

Menten: Open letter to the Colorado Commission on Property Tax

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Dear members of the Commission on Property Tax:

The commission was tasked with providing property tax relief options before the temporary tax adjustments expire at the end of 2024.

The obvious  answer is to restore inflation and growth adjustable property tax revenue caps where they’ve been forfeited in prior elections. Good news – that’s already in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) but it needs to be reinforced!

If that doesn’t happen, there will be a hard property tax cap on the 2024 ballot. That’s been clearly stated by two of the proponents of property tax caps if there was insufficient actions from the commission.

Taxpayers want tax caps whether they are hard or inflation adjustable. Taxpayers like me understand that government growth should be relative to the size of the local economy. That is rightly answered in the existing property tax limit contained in TABOR, paragraph 7c, which allows for such growth.

Having sat through all the commission meetings, there’s a few moments I want to highlight.

Bring back the tax caps

In this three minute video, the county assessor from Santa Clara, California described where that state sits now under the Proposition 13 property tax caps. His points illustrate why our Colorado TABOR is ideal. The assessor points out that local California governments didn’t appropriately reduce property taxes in 1978, even referring to property taxes as “money machines.” So, California voters used their right to petition to place a hard tax cap on the ballot, which became Proposition 13. Continue reading →

Feb 28

Fiscal Rules and ‘Learning by Doing’

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February 28, 2024

Fiscal Rules and ‘Learning by Doing’

By Barry Poulson

An important discovery in understanding productivity change and economic growth is the phenomenon of “learning by doing.” One of the first discoveries of this phenomenon was in the aircraft industry during World War II. Defense contractors discovered that in producing a particular aircraft, the labor force was more efficient with each successive contract. The labor force gained knowledge in producing aircraft in the initial contract that they applied in subsequent contracts.

Learning by doing is found to increase productivity across many industries. It is found in pursuing public policies as well. I gained insight into these learning effects as a member of the Colorado Tax Commission. We held hearings across the state to gain insight into citizen attitudes toward fiscal policy, and in particular to Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights Amendment (TABOR). If any government in Colorado wants to increase taxes, revenues, or issue public debt, it must have citizen approval. Citizens in Colorado have voted on hundreds of these ballot measures at all levels of government since TABOR was passed through citizen initiative in 1992. Continue reading →

Feb 27

We appreciate good feedback about TABOR Committee actions.”

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Voters in the Elk Creek Fire Protection District narrowly defeated a proposal on the Nov 8, 2023 election ballot that would have consolidated ECFPD with two other small and underfunded Front Range fire districts.  Consolidation would have seriously degraded the high level of service that ECFPD residents currently enjoy.  The TABOR Committee, particularly attorney Paul Cohen, contributed to the narrow defeat by responding to a request from opponents of consolidation for help in discouraging the ECFPD from suppressing our TABOR statements against consolidation.

In past elections, the union controlled ECFPD Board of Directors has illegally edited opposition TABOR statements into irrelevancy.  In 2023, our opposition campaign put ECFPD on notice that our attorneys participated in writing our TABOR statements, and that was enough to protect our TABOR statements from any editing occurring.  It also helped that one member of the ECFPD Board of Directors, Chuck Newby, was the very energetic leader of the opposition campaign.  Board meetings prior to the vote were exceptionally bitter and loud in their denunciation of Director Newby, and the Board has since censured Mr. Newby for his role in channeling the will of the voters.  We are undeterred and are anticipating that the same consolidation question will likely be on the ballot again in 2024.  We look forward to continued support from the TABOR Committee.

Our sincerest thanks to the TABOR Committee.  It is my hope that the TABOR Committee will offer its legal support in the future to other groups, as well, that are opposing government expansion and higher taxes.  I have been writing TABOR statements in Park County for thirty years and can attest to their value in forming public opinion and in defeating the constant drive for bigger government.  Many TABOR tax information booklets, in other districts, are mailed with only supporting statements and no opposing statements.

This is a huge missed opportunity to use the constitutional freedom of expression that patriots have.  Anything the TABOR Committee can do to encourage tax opponents to use their voices is sorely needed.  The important battles since Democrats took control of State government have been at the local level—and TABOR statements are a powerful tool conservatives need to use.  The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Gary Fisk
Pine, Park County, Colorado

Feb 23

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

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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

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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…