When will the moneyed gentry realize that they are in “it,” too, with the rest of us? Everyone’s fate is the same.
Repeal TABOR, before al Qaeda decides to adopt Colorado as a vacation home. They’d feel right at home, with our mountains and rotten roads. And guns everywhere. But that’s for another day.
Gregory Iwan
Longmont
http://www.dailycamera.com/letters/ci_27284871/gregory-iwan-another-tabor-dividend
The first batch of state Senate bills popped into the online queue Wednesday, hours after session ended. But one was missing at first: Senate Bill 1, reserved for President Bill Cadman.
Now it’s online, and it’s a big one. The measure would change how the state awards refunds under the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights — essentially shifting who gets the most money back when the state exceeds its TABOR revenue cap.
It’s a complicated topic, but the analysts at the Colorado Fiscal Institute broke it down. (Spoiler alert: The left-leaning policy organization actually likes the bill.)
To read the rest of this article, click the following link:
http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2015/01/08/cadman-tabor-rebates/116112/
Economic opportunity, education funding, business development: Whatever issues you care about, there’s a good chance the 70th Colorado General Assembly will try to do something about them in the coming months.
The lawmakers convened Wednesday with Democrats still in the majority in the House. But the Senate is now under Republican control, for the first time in a decade. Compromise will be key to getting bills passed.
DENVER – After a year of bitter contention over stricter gun laws, Colorado Republicans proposed bills on Wednesday that seek to repeal controversial legislation that was passed by Democrats in 2013.
The laws, which bans the possession of large-capacity (more than 15 rounds) magazines and require background checks for all private gun sales, triggered at least one lawsuit against the state and played a part in recall elections that put two southern Colorado lawmakers out of office.
HB 15-1009 would repeal the law banning possession and sale of large-capacity magazines. HB 15-1050, brought forward by Colorado Springs Republican Rep. Janak Joshi of House District 16, aims to repeal the background checks for the transfer of guns from non-licensed carriers.
Wednesday’s opening day of the Colorado legislative session included more than the anticipated repeal of gun laws.
Senators and their guests bow their heads during a prayer as the Colorado Legislature kicks off its 2015 session on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015.
Economic opportunity, education funding, business development: Whatever issues you care about, there’s a good chance the 70th Colorado General Assembly will try to do something about them in the coming months.
The lawmakers convened Wednesday with Democrats still in the majority in the House. But the Senate is now under Republican control, for the first time in a decade. Compromise will be key to getting bills passed.
The parties do seem to be on the same page in at least a few big areas, including boosting school funding and expanding workforce development programs.
However, Senate President Bill Cadman brought an agenda that also includes more polarizing ideas, like cutting regulations on business.
“Rolling back costly, useless regulations will make us more competitive. And if we are not sharpening our competitive edge in every place we can, we are losing it in every place we don’t,” said, while also warning of coming fights over what the state should do with its growing state tax revenue.
“We are about to face one of the best problems we have had in this legislature in a long time. It’s called prosperity,” Cadman said.
As soon as this year, Colorado may start sending money back to residents, as required by the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. Senate Republicans have said those refunds must go out. But Some Democrats want to ask voters to instead put the money into full-day kindergarten.
In the House, Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst warned that too few Coloradans are benefiting from the growing economy.
by Lisa Cyriacks
For the first time in many years, Colorado government finds itself in a position of having to refund tax revenue to voters. The refunds are required when state revenue exceeds the combined rate of inflation and population growth.
Taxpayer rebates totaling $167.2 million are mandated by Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), assuming current law and the accuracy of the September forecast by the Office of State Planning and Budget.
A $30.5 million rebate for new marijuana taxes is coming. Total state marijuana revenue was different than what was projected in the election blue book. (In November 2013, Colorado voters approved Proposition AA, which allowed a 10% retail sales tax and a 15% excise tax.) Because the estimated revenue subject to TABOR was underestimated, under TABOR the state must refund the money being collected or ask voters again to keep it for additional state spending.
According to Governor Hickenlooper, it will be important to engage the legislature when the session begins on the issue of marijuana sales tax revenue rebates. At the time he presented the proposed budget he advised that it would be unwise for the state to plan to spend any of those funds in advance of that discussion. Continue reading
Who is in charge of the American republic?
In 1992 Coloradans voted to amend their state constitution in order to impose restraints on their government’s power to tax and spend. The Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) has since given citizens the final say on new or increased taxes and spending.
That right, however, is now under threat from Kerr v. Hickenlooper , a lawsuit calling into question TABOR’s constitutionality. A federal appellate decision allowing this lawsuit to proceed is likely to reverberate in shockwaves throughout the nation.
Controversial from its inception, opponents of TABOR were concerned the law would make it more difficult for government to pursue costly new programs or to increase funding for existing programs. But the people spoke definitively when they adopted TABOR, both because it’s their tax dollars at stake and because they believed that government exists to serve their interests.
Not surprisingly — having lost in the court of public opinion — TABOR’s opponents have turned to lawsuits. They first brought suit in state court, arguing that TABOR’s fiscal limitations were somehow in conflict with the Colorado Constitution’s requirement that the state must provide adequate funding for public schools.
Never mind that TABOR allows schools to receive continued funding at existing levels, with annual adjustments for inflation and population growth. TABOR even allows for new or increased taxes when the citizens of the community approve the measure in a vote.
As hopeless as it might seem, Colorado must revisit the argument over its ludicrous state tax “refunds” that hurt the state and all of us much more than any individual actually benefits.
If you’re new to these parts, Colorado suffers under a unwieldy and complicated set of restrictive budget laws dubbed the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR.
The measure was a product of Colorado’s notorious anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce and misguided state voters who approved the state constitutional amendment in 1992. As it was sold to voters, the measure capped state taxes by requiring that tax increases be approved by voters. But the convoluted and labyrinthine measure does so much more. It not only caps taxes, but it caps spending. Part of the amendment sets government services at a baseline, so that when budgets decrease in lean tax years, a new, lower baseline is set, creating the so-called, dreaded ratchet-down effect.
