Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Tag: State Fees

Colorado Lawmakers Lean on Fees to Sidestep TABOR Tax Limits
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Lean on Fees to Sidestep TABOR Tax Limits

By: Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics More than 30 years after Colorado voters approved the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a growing share of state spending now falls outside the voter-approved limits intended to restrain government growth. A new report shows that fee-funded “enterprises” — state-owned businesses exempt from TABOR’s revenue cap — have expanded dramatically, raising worries that lawmakers are increasingly relying on fees, rather than taxes, to fund government programs. At its core, TABOR limits the government’s ability to raise revenue. Political subdivisions must obtain voter approval for any tax increase, and it requires dollars above the TABOR limit to be refunded to residents. Numerous efforts have been made to repeal TABOR since its enactment. As r...
Read More
When caps don’t cap costs
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

When caps don’t cap costs

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A familiar promise, a familiar frustration Voters are often told that a policy includes a built-in safeguard — a cap, a limit, a hard stop designed to keep costs under control. In Colorado, that promise came with the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, approved by voters in 1992 as a constitutional amendment limiting how much revenue state and local governments can keep and spend without voter approval. Nationally, it appeared in the Affordable Care Act’s limits on how much of each insurance premium can be kept for administration and profit under the law’s medical loss ratio rules. The two systems regulate very different things. One governs government revenue, the other private insurance markets.  But cr...
Read More
Colorado families hit from every angle as taxes and fees outpace income growth
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado families hit from every angle as taxes and fees outpace income growth

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice The latest analysis from the Common Sense Institute shows Denver-area households feeling a real financial squeeze, and it’s not just higher prices driving it. The report finds that since 2016, the typical household’s tax and fee load has jumped 48 percent while pre-tax income has grown only 27 percent. Inflation Has Hit Essentials Hardest CSI’s findings line up with what national inflation data has shown over the past few years. Prices climbed fastest from 2021 through 2023. According to the Consumer Price Index, the cumulative increase during that stretch was around 15.7 percent - compared with about 7.8 percent from 2016 to 2020. Families noticed it most in the basics.  Grocery prices jumped as well. In 20...
Read More
They built the budget bomb: Now Colorado Democrats say President Trump lit the fuse
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

They built the budget bomb: Now Colorado Democrats say President Trump lit the fuse

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board They built the budget bomb. Now they say Trump lit the fuse. Colorado Democrats want you to believe they’re victims of the Big Bad Federal Budget Bill. That the state’s $1.2 billion shortfall just... happened. Like a pothole after a snowstorm. Nothing to do with how they’ve governed. Governor Polis says, "The Trump Administration is withholding needed funds from our classrooms," and Senate President James Coleman warns, "There’s no avoiding the fact that these cuts will hurt Colorado families." Convenient. But here’s the part they don’t mention: Colorado’s fee-based revenue—the stealth tax that doesn’t require a vote—blew through the roof to $25.8 billion last year.  That’s right. More than half of the entire state budget now come...
Read More