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Martinez: Court sends a reminder; tax hikes require voter consent
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Approved, Commentary, completecolorado.com, State

Martinez: Court sends a reminder; tax hikes require voter consent

By Tyler Martinez | Complete Colorado In a major victory for taxpayers, a unanimous panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals agreed with the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s Taxpayer Defense Center (NTUF) that an overnight doubling of the property taxes in a few Northern Colorado counties violated the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). We represented James Aranci and his neighbors, who were shocked to learn in 2020 that their property taxes to the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District doubled from 2019 to 2020 (and the years thereafter). TABOR mandates a ratification vote of any proposed tax increase or new debt taken on by government entities–including water districts. But there was no vote from Aranci or anyone else. So we came...
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TAX DAY: Colorado tax experts busy this season due to state TABOR refund
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Approved, CBS 11 KKTV, State

TAX DAY: Colorado tax experts busy this season due to state TABOR refund

By Kasia Kerridge | CBS 11 Colorado Springs Tax Day marks the last day to file your taxes, or you will need to get an extension. The IRS is estimating 19 million taxpayers will file for an automatic six-month extension. Although an extension grants extra time to file, the IRS says it does not extend the obligation to pay. “There’s two penalties you can face if you owe the IRS money by the deadline. The first is the failure the file penalty, and that one is 5% of the unpaid taxes. That one is very severe, and you can avoid that one by filing an extension. The second one is a failure to pay penalty. That one is .5% of the unpaid taxes,” said David Fruh of Jackson Hewitt Tax Services in Colorado Springs. READ THE FULL STORY AT CBS 11 COLORADO SPRINGS
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Natelson: Myth busting distinctions between ‘democracy’ and ‘republic’
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Approved, completecolorado.com

Natelson: Myth busting distinctions between ‘democracy’ and ‘republic’

By Rob Natelson | SOURCE: COMPLETE COLORADO PAGE TWO In 2011, a group of politicians and special interests sued in federal court to void Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). The case was Kerr v. Hickenlooper. The plaintiffs’ primary argument was that TABOR violated the U.S. Constitution’s Guarantee Clause (Article IV, Section 4), which says in part, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” The plaintiffs contended that to be a “republic,” a state must make taxing and spending decisions through elected representatives only. They based this on a misreading of James Madison’s Federalist No. 10 essay—while ignoring everything else Madison and other Founders said about republican and democratic governance. The plainti...
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Caldara: Let’s bring back 4-year TABOR overrides
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Approved, completecolorado.com, State

Caldara: Let’s bring back 4-year TABOR overrides

By Jon Caldara | SOURCE: COMPLETE COLORADO PAGE TWO (You can listen to this column, read by the author, here.) The former head of the leftist ProgressNow Colorado, who is married to a U.S. congresswoman living in Jefferson County, has donated to the election campaigns of all three of the current Jefferson County commissioners. So, what a coincidence those same Jefferson County commissioners, all Democrats, are now going to pay him $180,000 to help dupe taxpayers out of TABOR refunds. As reported by the news site CompleteColorado.com (a project of Independence Institute, which I run), 7th Congressional District U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen’s husband, Ian Silverii, has just inked a spectacular deal from Jefferson County. His firm “won” a $340,000 con...
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