Friends of TABOR,
Yesterday (Monday), the trial began on the lawsuit to prove the Bridge Enterprise Fund is unconstitutional because it ignores the rules laid out in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. You, as supporters and contributors, are bringing the lawsuit through our organization, the TABOR Foundation. We are represented by Mountain States Legal Foundation, and that legal firm’s attorney who is arguing the case is Jim Manley.
For a refresher on the issues, see http://tax.i2i.org/files/2013/05/Bridge_Enterprise_Fund.pdf , from A Citizen’s Budget for 2013 published by the Independence Institute.
Five witnesses; two heroes.
Plaintiffs (us) get to go first. One central fiction to keep in mind is the scheme declares that as you drive over certain bridges on the highway system, you are paying tolls to do so; tolls which are collected through a “safety surcharge.” The first two witnesses were Ms. Chris Sammons and Willie Wharton who both explained that they had to register vehicles and therefore pay the bridge surcharge “fee,” although those specifically identified vehicles never cross a single bridge. They did you proud, providing testimony that was calm, convincing, certain, occasionally humorous, and very credible. To me, they are my newest heroes. Both took a day off, drove in from Grand County (think, from beyond the western border of Rocky Mountain National Park), leaving very early to get to Denver on time. Continue reading