#TABOR
#VoteOnTaxesANDFees
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#ThankGodForTABOR
AFP Colorado@AFPColorado
#TABOR
#VoteOnTaxesANDFees
#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs
#ThankGodForTABOR
Americans give more of their hard-earned money to charitable causes than any people on the globe.
According to the Giving Institute, Americans give more than $1 billion a day to charities: a total of $410 billion in 2017.
And very little comes from the ultra-wealthy, big foundations, or large companies looking for good press. According to the Philanthropy Roundtable, in 2014 only 14% came from foundation grants, and just 5% from corporations. The rest, 81%, came from individuals like you.
Per capita, we voluntarily donate about seven times as much as continental Europeans. In Europe people see little reason to give more of their own money when so much is being forcibly taken by taxes and redistributed by the state for “what charity used to do.”
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“The federal court of appeals will review the trial court’s ruling on whether the case should even be brought before the federal judicial system. Your TABOR Foundation is one of three entities that filed a “friend-of-the-court” urging the courts to reject the arguments of the plaintiffs, and thereby end the case and leave the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights unchallenged. You may read the argument submitted by Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Colorado Union of Taxpayers and our Foundation, below.”
Case No. 17-1192
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
ANDY KERR, Colorado State Representative, et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
JARED POLIS, Governor of Colorado, in his official capacity, Defendant-Appellee.
On Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Colorado
No. 11-CV-01350-RM-NYW, The Honorable Raymond P. Moore
BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE MOUNTIAN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION, THE COLORADO UNION OF TAXPAYERS FOUNDATION, AND THE TABOR FOUNDATION IN SUPPORT OF APPELLEE URGING AFFIRMANCE
Cody J. Wisniewski
MOUNTAIN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION
2596 South Lewis Way
Lakewood, Colorado 80227
(303) 292-2021
cody@mslegal.org
Attorney for Amici Curiae
CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The undersigned attorney for Amici Curiae, Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Colorado Union of Taxpayers Foundation, and the TABOR Foundation certifies that
Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Colorado Union of Taxpayers Foundation, and the TABOR Foundation are non-profit corporations that have no parent corporations and have never issued any stock.
Respectfully submitted this 21st day of December 2020.
/s/ Cody J. Wisniewski
Cody J. Wisniewski
MOUNTAIN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION
2596 South Lewis Way
Lakewood, Colorado 80227
(303) 292-2021
cody@mslegal.org
Attorney for Amici Curiae
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS Continue reading
In December of 2019 the county commissioners in Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick and Washington counties certified the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District at 1.000 mills, double the amount allocated them on a yearly basis since early in the district’s formation.
Since then a group of property owners have been seeking recourse for the decision, claiming that the increase in mill levy was a violation of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which necessitates voter approval of both tax increases and the retention of excess funds if revenues grow faster than the rate of inflation and population growth. On May 19 William Banta, an attorney and legal council for the TABOR committee, sent a letter to the district.
“It has come to our attention that, in spite of TABOR, the Board of Directors of the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District increased the District’s mill levy for 2020 without having voter approval,” the letter said. “Although we understood that the district received permission from the voters in 1996 to keep and use excess revenues there was no approval to increase a mill levy.”
The 1996 ballot measure is central to the district’s legal argument. The voters approved the ballot measure giving the district the right to retain and spend an additional $13,025 and access “the full proceeds and revenues received from every source whatever, without limitation, in 1996 and all subsequent years.”
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The skyline is backlighted as the sun sets late Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020, in Denver.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
(The Center Square) – Colorado businesses are opposed to lawmakers increasing taxes during the upcoming legislative session, according to a new survey on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the state’s businesses.
The survey, conducted by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, found 87% of respondents want lawmakers to avoid “increases in taxes on businesses.”
Of the survey’s respondents, 80% of businesses said they want lawmakers to implement COVID-19 liability protections, and 56% want exceptions in public health orders to allow businesses to stay open if they meet or exceed guidelines.
“The economic fallout from COVID-19 can be felt among businesses of all sizes throughout the state,” Chuck Berry, president of the Colorado Chamber, said in a statement.
“You simply cannot amend the Colorado constitution by enacting a statute,” said Jason Gelender, a board member representing the Office of Legislative Legal Services. “It would be like if the General Assembly tried to do what the measure seems to try to do, saying ‘we’re going to repeal TABOR,’” referring to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Initiative #6, from designated representatives Donald L. “Chip” Craeger III of Denver and John Ebel of Lone Tree, mirrored three other proposals the Title Board considered within the past year. Nicknamed the “Petition Rights Amendment,” the measure would expand the right of ballot initiative to most units of government, change the process by which initiative titles are set and appealed, and alter the number of signatures required to place an initiative on the statewide ballot.
By The Editorial Board
Dec. 6, 2020 5:43 pm ET
PHOTO: CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES
The outcome of the presidential race isn’t the only election result being contested in Arizona, and the other has even greater consequences for the law. Last week two lawsuits were filed against Proposition 208, the ballot initiative that imposes a new 3.5% tax surcharge to raise an estimated $827 million for education. It passed with 51.7% of the vote.
The suits are challenging whether Prop 208, which passed as a statute, must conform to the state constitution. One suit was filed by businesswoman Ann Siner and retired judge John Buttrick, the other by the Goldwater Institute, the influential Arizona think tank.
The suits claim that Prop 208 contradicts a constitutional amendment that limits the amount of revenue provided to school districts each year. It also overrides another constitutional provision requiring a two-thirds majority of the Legislature to approve a tax increase.
The Legislative Council, a nonpartisan legislative office that reviews bills and ballot measures for form and constitutionality, held that Prop 208’s language exempting the money it raises from an existing cap on education spending “is likely invalid” because it violates express constitutional limits. Supporters went ahead anyway. The state Supreme Court declined to rule on claims that Prop 208 unconstitutionally curtails the Legislature’s authority but said it couldn’t consider the issue until it passed.
Colorado Rising Action executive director Michael Fields speaks to anti-Proposition CC supporters gathered for the No On CC campaign’s election night watch party at Great Northern in Denver on Nov. 5, 2019.
(Photo by Andy Colwell, special to Colorado Politics)
Colorado Rising State Action isn’t done with lower taxes yet.
The conservative advocacy organization is dropping the language for another tax decrease on the 2021 statewide ballot.
The question would reduce the residential property tax assessment rate from 7.15% to 6.5% and the non-residential property tax assessment rate from 29% to 27%.
Colorado Rising State Action opposed the repeal of the Gallagher Amendment, Amendment B, last month. The 38-year-old constitutional constraint set an equation between the rates for homes versus commercial property.
The repeal passed with 57.5% approval.
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