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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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Ballooning Medicaid costs, TABOR limits expose flaws in Colorado’s big government spending spree
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Ballooning Medicaid costs, TABOR limits expose flaws in Colorado’s big government spending spree

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board After years of overreach and unchecked government growth, Colorado lawmakers are now scrambling to plug a $1.2 billion hole in the state budget — a crisis largely of their own making.  Colorado budget writers voted Wednesday night to finalize a 2025–26 budget plan that slashes transportation funding, eliminates programs, and kicks key decisions down the road — all while Medicaid spending surges out of control. Despite the so-called “cuts,” the budget still grows to over $16 billion. But massive increases in Medicaid — particularly long-term care for seniors and the disabled — are eating up the budget at an unsustainable pace. Democrat lawmakers admit the problem is only getting worse. “Next year, I see our fiscal challenges compounding,...
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Hillman: Fiscal tailgating put Colorado in the ditch
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Approved, Commentary, denvergazette.com, State

Hillman: Fiscal tailgating put Colorado in the ditch

By Mark Hillman | Denver Gazette 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 th...
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Rep. Gonzalez: Colorado doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Rep. Gonzalez: Colorado doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem

By Rep. Ryan Gonzalez | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In the state of Colorado, we are facing over a $1.2 BILLION dollar shortfall. As we are now halfway through the 2025 legislative session, we have seen little progress from the lawmaking majority on making hard and significant cuts to our budget.  Rather than admit the improper allocation of taxpayer dollars, the majority uses this predicament to go after and attack our Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR).  Our state budget this year is over 43 BILLION. In the last 6 years they have gone from a budget surplus to a very progressive spending spree at the expense of taxpayers.  More offices, tax credits, and programs that require funding and eat away at TABOR refunds have been – and continue to be –  the...
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