State & Local Issues

During the 2007 session of the Colorado state legislature, the Democratic leadership rammed through Governor Ritter's proposal to "freeze" the residential property tax levy in the state, projecting that it would raise $48 million. Never mind that because it increases revenue to the state, this move appears to be a direct violation of TABOR, and thus is unconstitutional. Well, it looks like global warming – or at least the light of full disclosure – may be melting the ice caps on the governor's "freeze" scheme, too.

At the request of Representative Cory Gardner, the non-partisan Legislative Council has calculated a current estimate of the real impact of the revenue generating scheme to be $114 million -- a 237.5% increase from the original estimate used by the promoters of the plot just a few months ago. Only in government is a swing of more than double not a reason for concern. "These forecasts change; they can change dramatically in three or six months," Ritter told the Denver Post. "We're not deciding now that we are going to do anything with that until we see what those numbers are."

How about at least a pledge to cap the confiscation of taxpayer dollars where you originally said they'd be?

And, "forecasts change... dramatically in three or six months"? Are we experiencing rapid appreciation in home values? I thought it was just the opposite problem – that prices had softened and we had a glut of properties on the market. The home building industry sure seems to be reeling pretty badly.

Maybe somebody in government hadn't done their homework, or wasn't completely honest when they sold the first bill of goods during the legislative session.

As we've seen over and over, government's appetite for your money is insatiable. Referendum C was sold to the taxpayers as a $3.7 billion "time-out" from constitutionally-required taxpayer refunds under TABOR. Guess what, the latest estimate is for the total revenue to reach $5.9 billion. Has the Democratic majority under the gold dome said "enough" and offered to cap it? Of course not. And, now we have evidence from former treasurer Mark Hillman that they haven't even kept trust with the voters and appropriated the windfall as required by the referendum. 

Already they're back for more, and it's only just begun. Less than subtle hints have surfaced for numerous tax hikes. The Denver Post reports that as many as seventeen tax increase proposals are in the works for 2008 to empty your pocket, and they are still devising more.  

In 2006 with far more revenue pouring into the state's coffers from Ref. C than originally projected, I asked Bill Ritter in one of our debates during the campaign for governor how much would be enough to cap it and send the rest back to the taxpayers who earned it. (I believed that Colorado should have limited the take to the $3.7 million that was promoted to the voters.) His response was "We need the money, and we need to spend it."  

It looks like that same attitude of "government needs it more than the people who earned it" is very much alive and well under the gold dome in Denver.