By Cory Gaines | Colorado Accountability Project
Colorado Democrats made a hash of the state’s finances, but they want YOU to pay to fix it.
In this post I want to flesh out some of the many assaults on TABOR and fiscal responsibility the Democrats are cooking up for this legislative session.
The previous two posts were all about financial problems in this state. Problems that arose from mismanagement of state rules and money. Problems that arose from out of control spending. Problems that arose from politicians not being willing to do what families are forced to do every single day: adjust their spending to their income and choose among priorities.
In this final post of the series, I want to outline some of the ways in which Colorado Democrats–the party that has completely run this state for the last 4 years mind you–are going to try and make THEIR choices into YOUR problem.
I will outline some of the ways in which they want to remove fiscal restraints you have put into law, restraints you have put into the Constitution, so that they’re free to take more of your money and put it to their pet programs.
After all, they know better what to do with your money than you do right?
If you want an overview in the form of an article, the first link is to a Denver Post article listing some of the various ways Democrats are going to try and crack TABOR. Read up on it if you’d like, but I will excerpt some of the highlights below to give you more detail.
The PDF included at the bottom of this commentary is a just-introduced joint resolution which would enable the state legislature to sue in Colorado courts to end TABOR. As a quick aside, note they would be suing with your money.
In a supreme irony given that TABOR is an actual amendment in the state constitution (see screenshot 1 attached), the lawmakers sponsoring this resolution say that revenue limits along with the requirement that they ask you before taking more of your money in taxes are somehow a violation of the guarantee of a republican form of government.
Let me run that past you again.
Having to ask you before taking more of your money is a violation of a republican form of government. Having to hold to a budget restriction that voters enforced on the legislature is a violation of a republican form of government.
I think it is possible to get dumber, but you’d really have to work at it.
Links 3 and 4 below are novel in that they are clever workarounds to reclassify existing sources of state revenue so as to make them exempt from TABOR.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb25-173
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb25-270
Screenshot 2 attached comes from the fiscal note for SB25-173 and it describes what the bill does.
There are some forms of state revenue that lies outside of TABOR limits. I.e. there are certain income streams the state is not required to track and put a cap on: “damage awards” and “property sales” (quotes to indicate that this is the language in the actual TABOR amendment).
As their names suggest, damage awards are monies the state brings in from things like penalties and property sales are from things the state sells. The things that currently qualify for this TABOR exemption would be added to under this bill; it would expand the lists.
Screenshots 3a and 3b list the new things put under the TABOR exemption. Quite a few items if you ask me. Oh, and incidentally, what possible problems could there be for incentivizing collecting more fines so that we can have more TABOR-exempt revenue. Golly if there are any, I sure can’t imagine them!
SB25-270 is the fourth and final link. Would that it were the final assault on TABOR, but if I did every bill this post would be longer than it already is.
SB25-270 is noteworthy because it also presents a novel strategy (to me anyway) of working around TABOR revenue limits while still allowing Dems to fund all their various social engineering projects.
As I have written about before, any revenue that goes into a state enterprise (a government-run business that charges fees for services rendered–such services sometimes more speculative than others) is not subject to TABOR limits.
Screenshot 4 is from SB25-270’s fiscal note and it outlines the shell game the Democrat sponsors are playing. They are basically going to reclassify what was regular state revenue (subject to TABOR limits) to enterprise revenue (NOT subject to TABOR limits).
If Colorado Democrats get wind that this strategy works, anyone care to lay bets on moves like this in the future?
If you are not already, get involved. Start sharing information on the Democrats’ insulting response to their mistake with others. Start speaking up and joining the fight.
If you don’t you will soon wake up to a state where there is little to not statutory fiscal restraints. Put that with the beyond progressive legislature we have now and we’ll all be in more fiscal trouble here than we currently suffer with.
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