Supreme Court’s TABOR ruling puts legislature on shaky ground
During its August special session, the Colorado General Assembly passed several bills to raise tax revenue and partially fill the growing chasm between federal tax policy and progressive Democrats’ insatiable spending.
Although the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) in our state constitution requires a public vote on any “tax policy change directly causing a net tax revenue gain,” lawmakers believe that a Colorado Supreme Court from 2018 allows them to raise tax revenue by closing so-called “loopholes.”
Specifically, the court ruled in TABOR Foundation vs. RTD (2018) that the language of TABOR is “best read to exclude legislation that causes only an incidental and de minimus tax revenue increase.” Justices arrived at this conclusion by analyzing a 2013 bill that removed some sales tax exemptions and added others to make RTD and state sales tax collections uniform.
Although legislative staff predicted a 0.6% increase in revenue, justices disagreed with TABOR Foundation’s argument that this triggered the constitutional requirement for a public vote.
However, the court added in a footnote, “We do not suggest that TABOR allows districts to raise revenue by increasing taxes without voter approval so long as they do it in small enough increments; while such measures might be de minimus, they would not be incidental.” read more…
Legislature bleeds us again, promises more to come
I miss John Hickenlooper – and I really miss Roy Romer.
While I often disagreed with their policies, at least we lived on the same planet because they understood that Colorado businesses must prosper to sustain the functions of government.
The recent “extraordinary” session of the Colorado legislature starkly illustrated how the Democratic Party has changed since Gov. Hickenlooper’s term ended in 2019 and even more so since Gov. Romer’s tenure (1987-1999).
Before becoming Denver mayor, Hickenlooper was a restauranteur and worked as a geologist for an oil company in his early years. Romer, still active today at age 95, coupled his work as a legislator and state treasurer with his family’s John Deere dealerships before being elected governor.
Democrats with meaningful business background are an endangered species at today’s State Capitol. The current legislative majority seems to view the relationship between government and business like that of a parasite and a host. Ruling “progressives” rarely hesitate to add more burdens – regulation, litigation or taxation – to the litany of hazards confronting anyone doing business here.
Business, it seems, is a necessary evil tolerated only to fund government. read more…
The real reason Coloradans have lousy roads
‘Tis the season when Colorado highways are teeming with summer travelers, all confronted with the inescapable reality that state government has absolutely failed its responsibility to maintain our highways.
Last month, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) quantified this dismal state of affairs: barely one-third of our state roads are in “good” condition, far below the national average.
According to Colorado Department of Transportation’s own analysis, 71% of all highway miles under state maintenance have less than 10 years of “drivability” remaining, including more than 800 miles where the drivability life is completely exhausted.
Drivers in my home of Kit Carson County know those “exhausted” lanes very well. Interstate 70 just inside the Kansas border is undergoing a slapdash repair – a couple inches of asphalt unfurled like a band-aid over a crumbling concrete base – to conceal countless “Polis potholes” long enough for our next governor to inherit the problem. read more…
Progressive Democrats show contempt for Colorado voters
Lawmakers and special interests routinely ask Colorado voters to raise taxes so they can spend more of our money. Most often, voters say, “No!”
Now certain “progressive” Democrat lawmakers plan to use our own tax dollars to sue us for limiting their power to raise our taxes.
That’s disgusting even by the gutter standards of this legislature.
Having demonstrated their contempt for the rights of law-abiding Coloradans to exercise freedom of speech and to keep and bear arms as protected by the U.S. Constitution, Democrats at our State Capitol now want us to believe they care about respecting that same constitution. read more…
Disability bill will cause explosion in predatory lawsuits
A bill now under consideration in the Colorado Senate threatens an explosion of drive-by disability lawsuits in Colorado courts.
House Bill 25-1239 was originally presented as a re-organization of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA), but the bill doesn’t merely modify or update remedies. Instead, it creates, through legislative fiat, new “damages” that do not otherwise exist.
For example, the bill (introduced by Reps. Yara Zokaie and Andrew Boesenecker, both D-Fort Collins) entitles a plaintiff with a successful CADA claim to collect $50,000 in damages for pain and suffering, inconvenience or emotional stress.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. To further fuel litigation, the bill allows a fine of $5,000 per plaintiff for each violation.
These are damages paid by a local business, usually for a simple oversight. read more…
More ‘fiscal tailgating’ caused Colorado’s budget problems
Headlines from the State Capitol might cause a reader to believe Colorado is in a deep recession. Legislators say they must cut more than $1 billion in spending to balance the 2025-26 budget.
Still, state government has $687 million more to spend than last year in a $19 billion budget. So why all the histrionics about a budget “crisis”? Because Colorado lawmakers practice “fiscal tailgating.”
Tailgating on the highway is dangerous because when drivers travel too fast and follow too close to the car ahead, the tailgating driver doesn’t have time to react if the lead driver unexpectedly brakes or swerves.
Fiscal tailgating is much the same. Lawmakers spend money as fast as it comes in, then when the economy slows, they face much harder choices than if they had tapped the brakes when awash in money. read more…
Free State of Colorado? Not hardly.
Colorado’s ruling progressive Democrats believe in equality under the law only in the sense, as in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, that some of us are “more equal than others.” Nothing illustrates this better than their current contortions related to gun policy and crime.
On the one hand, progressives resist passing a law to increase penalties for stealing a firearm because, they say, it might result in too many “black or brown” men going to jail. Likewise, they don’t want to make it easier for law enforcement to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes.
Level heads might consider it a higher priority to protect law-abiding black and brown people who aspire to live in a safe community to raise a family and earn an honest living. They shouldn’t have to contend with criminals roaming the streets because progressive lawmakers want to screen perpetrators based on skin color.
On the other hand, progressives charge full-speed ahead to criminalize gun transactions which have been entirely legal during all 148 years of Colorado statehood. read more…
This ain’t your father’s Colorado
If you’re 40 or older, today’s Colorado is very different politically than the state where you grew up – assuming you grew up here.
Except for Lyndon Johnson’s landslide win over Barry Goldwater in 1964, no Democrat won more than 45% in Colorado between 1952 and 2000.
When Bill Clinton won Colorado in 1992 (with 40% in a three-way race), we became a “swing state” in presidential races through 2008. Three of those elections were decided by less than 5%.
Republicans’ most decisive win in that era was George W. Bush by 8.4% in 2000. Ranked by margin of victory, Colorado was then 19th most-Republican state, darker red than Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida or Iowa.
Oh, how times have changed. read more…
National debt is silent threat to America’s security
With the election mercifully behind us, Americans should expect those we’ve elected to get to the less-pleasant task of governing responsibly. While hot-button issues such as immigration, inflation and foreign affairs will garner most headlines, a more pressing concern is too often overlooked: America’s staggering national debt.
Growing faster than the economy and projected to reach a record share of gross domestic product (GDP) within three years, our debt is a national crisis. If we continue down the current unsustainable path, we are flirting with catastrophe that would dwarf the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
Our next Congress and President must confront this challenge before it is too late.
The current debt held by the public stands at $28 trillion or 98% of GDP. In three years, that debt will exceed the record of 106% of GDP reach just after World War 2. However, the WW2 debt was incurred for a specific, important purpose: to preserve freedom and democracy. Within a decade, it was sliced in half. Today’s debt is mostly the result of irresponsible budgeting by both parties, years of passing deficit-ridden budgets because our leaders are unwilling to even modestly slow federal spending. read more…
Democrats’ obsession made Trump’s comeback possible
No cat has more lives than Donald Trump’s political fortunes. To be sure, he is as skilled at retail politics as anyone since Bill Clinton, but he also benefits from being habitually underestimated by his adversaries.
His unprecedented political rehabilitation wasn’t merely a product of Republican support. Democrats and the dominant liberal media must ask themselves, “Did our relentless obsession with demonizing Trump instead breathe new life into him?”
Democrats were convinced they could beat Trump and certain Americans were done with him. But they ignored the maxim, “You can’t beat something with nothing.” They became primarily the party of anti-Trump. What else explains a coalition of AOC, transgender activists, anti-gun liberals, plus Dick and Liz Cheney?
But instead of occupying the political center, Democrats missed every opportunity to stop hemorrhaging middle-of-the-road voters. read more…