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Tag: TABOR

Gaines: Polis’ picks for land board proves Colorado’s gone to the wolves
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Approved, Commentary, State, Substack

Gaines: Polis’ picks for land board proves Colorado’s gone to the wolves

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I wrote about Polis advisor Nicole Rosmarino being the sole finalist for the directorship of the State Land Board recently. That newsletter is linked first below if you want or need context.On the heels of that newsletter, I got a message from a reader alerting me to the other two appointments that Governor Polis made to the State Land Board--this is the same board mind you that makes decisions on grazing leases, mineral-extraction (oil/gas) leases, and provides revenue to schools--Mark Harvey from Pitkin County and James Pribyl from Louisville. Harvey was appointed to fill the agriculture seat on the board and Pribyl the citizen-at-large seat.If the name Pribyl sounds familiar, you're not alone. He was a former member of the ...
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Colorado Republicans: Effort to save taxpayers money ‘shredded’ by Democrats this session
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Colorado Republicans: Effort to save taxpayers money ‘shredded’ by Democrats this session

By Marianne Goodland | Denver Gazette Republican lawmakers, who are in the minority at the state Capitol, said they saw little success in their campaign to save residents money this year, as Democrats "shredded" that goal. At the beginning of the session, Republicans unveiled a series of measures that, they insisted, would save the average Colorado family $4,500 each year. "We had hopes to make life more affordable," said Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen of Monument. The agenda included measures to repeal the state's grocery bag ban and undo a retail delivery fee, ride share fees, and regulations around cage-free eggs. They also sought reductions in energy and utility costs, and pushed to reduce and — eventually repeal — the state income tax and the state tax on Social ...
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Final week at the Capitol: Democrats target TABOR, transparency and immigration enforcement
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Approved, DENVER7, State

Final week at the Capitol: Democrats target TABOR, transparency and immigration enforcement

By Brandon Richard | Denver7 DENVER — With under a week to go before they adjourn this year’s legislative session, Colorado lawmakers still have a lot of work ahead of them. Dozens of bills are still under consideration, including several controversial proposals. “It feels like 80% of the work happens in the last two weeks,” said State Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Englewood. “Our budget was pretty late in being finalized, and so, nothing can really move until we know how much money we're working with, or in this case, how much money we're not working with.” Froelich is one of the primary sponsors of Senate Bill 25-161, which would reform the Regional Transportation District (RTD). The bill cleared its second-to-last vote in the Colorado House of Representatives on Thursday. “Th...
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Colorado lawmakers pass budget cutting roads, aid to keep health care afloat
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado lawmakers pass budget cutting roads, aid to keep health care afloat

By Brian Eason | Colorado Sun Colorado lawmakers on Monday gave final approval to a $43.9 billion spending plan that cuts funding for transportation projects, local governments and dozens of social programs in order to keep up with the rising costs of health care and education. But as difficult as this year’s budget was, there was widespread acknowledgement that — one way or another — the state’s financial picture is only expected to get worse from here. “Next year is going to be very bad,” said Sen. Jeff Bridges, the Greenwood Village Democrat who chairs the Joint Budget Committee. “The cuts will be much more deep and much more painful.” The main budget bill passed the state House 43 to 21 and the Senate 24 to 11, with most Republicans opposed. From here it heads to Gov. Jared...
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Hillman: TABOR is the people’s law—Democrats want to sue it out of existence
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Approved, Colorado Politics, State

Hillman: TABOR is the people’s law—Democrats want to sue it out of existence

By Mark Hillman | Colorado Politics 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. Led by Reps. Sean Camacho (D-Denver) and Lorena Garcia (D-Adams County) and Sens. Lindsay Daugherty (D-Arvada) and Iman Jodeh (D-...
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Why HJR25-1023’s logic for killing TABOR collapses under basic constitutional history
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Approved, completecolorado.com, State, Top Stories

Why HJR25-1023’s logic for killing TABOR collapses under basic constitutional history

By Rob Natelson | Complete Colorado To understand why some members of the Colorado legislature are unworthy of your trust, look no further than their current effort to take away your state tax refunds and abolish your right to vote on taxes, spending, and debt. An astounding 44 of 100 lawmakers are sponsoring House Joint Resolution (HJR) 25-1023. This resolution would spend tax dollars on a lawsuit to void the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). Coloradans voted to add this valuable protection to the state Constitution in 1992. I’ve listed the sponsors at the end of this column, so you can see who they are and what districts they so poorly represent. I’ve also included a link so you can see their party affiliation and email addresses and another link so you ...
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Taxpayers could foot the bill—twice—for Democrats’ lawsuit to dismantle TABOR
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Taxpayers could foot the bill—twice—for Democrats’ lawsuit to dismantle TABOR

By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun Colorado taxpayers may foot the bill twice if Democratic lawmakers manage to pass a resolution directing the legislature to sue the state in an attempt to invalidate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.  That’s because not only will taxpayers likely be responsible for paying the lawyers hired by the legislature to bring the case, but they’ll also be on the hook for the costs incurred by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office to defend against the legal challenge to TABOR, a constitutional amendment voters approved in 1992.  If House Joint Resolution 1023 passes as expected, the General Assembly’s nonpartisan Office of Legislative Legal Services would likely hire a group of attorneys to file the lawsuit. In the past, the legislature’s third-par...
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AGNC: Democrats’ TABOR lawsuit a “legislative betrayal” against Colorado taxpayers
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

AGNC: Democrats’ TABOR lawsuit a “legislative betrayal” against Colorado taxpayers

By Tori Ganahl | Rocky Mountain Voice Democrats in the Colorado legislature are pushing forward with a plan that would fundamentally alter the state's tax system—starting with a lawsuit aimed at dismantling the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). At the heart of this effort is House Joint Resolution 25-1023, which directs the General Assembly’s Committee on Legal Services to file a lawsuit in state court challenging the constitutionality of TABOR.  Their argument? That allowing voters to decide on tax increases and imposing limits on government spending violates the “republican form of government” guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution​. Simply put: Colorado Democrats are claiming that the very act of asking taxpayers for permission to raise taxes is unconstitutional. This ...
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Gaines: Colorado Democrats blew the budget and now they want your TABOR refunds
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Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Gaines: Colorado Democrats blew the budget and now they want your TABOR refunds

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 ru...
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Democrats launch legal assault on TABOR: Will the courts undo the will of Colorado voters?
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Democrats launch legal assault on TABOR: Will the courts undo the will of Colorado voters?

By Marianne Goodland | Denver Gazette In 2011, a coalition of 33 individuals and groups, including current and former lawmakers, county commission and other elected officials and school districts, sued the state of Colorado, challenging the constitutionality of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. A decade later, the lawsuit was dismissed on a technicality: the lawsuit, the federal courts indicated, had the wrong plaintiffs. A state Democratic lawmaker who was part of the legal team in Kerr v. Hickenlooper (later Kerr v. Polis) is now sponsoring a resolution to try again, but with some important differences. Rep. Sean Camacho, D-Denver, sponsored House Joint Resolution 1023, which would require the General Assembly to sue over TABOR's constitutionality in state district court. The...
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