Ben Murrey, Author at Independence Institute

AUTHOR

Ben Murrey

Ben Murrey serves as Independence Institute’s Director of Fiscal Policy, working to promote fiscal responsibility in Colorado government and to defend the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights in the state’s constitution. Prior to his role with II, Ben spent seven years as a United States Senate staffer in Washington, D.C. and a legislative aide for Senator Ted Cruz. While in Washington, he participated in numerous legislative and policy battles, including those over the 2014 effort to defund Obamacare, passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, and passage the CARES Act in 2020. He also took on other fights to stop federal bureaucratic overreach, limit the size and scope of the federal government, and restore fiscal order in Congress. Before moving to D.C., Ben coordinated grassroots and get-out-the-vote efforts for 45 east Texas counties for the Ted Cruz for Senate campaign during the 2012 runoff election. He served as Deputy Director of Operations during the general election. A graduate of Hillsdale College with honors from both the Politics and German departments, Ben has been steeped in the principles and precepts of limited government, free market economics, and individual liberty. He did two stints as an exchange student in Germany, first on a State Department scholarship where he spent a year living with a German family and attending a German high school (Gymnasium) in Bremen and later for a semester at the University of Saarland. He speaks fluent German. A native Texan, Ben spent his formative years vacationing in and falling in love with Colorful Colorado. Years working the D.C. swamp left him with the strong conviction that most of America’s governing should happen at the state and local level. He finally put his money where his mouth was by moving with his wife and son to Denver and joining the Independence Institute staff.

Backgrounder: $617 million in Hidden Taxes from 2021 Session 0

With the 2021 Colorado regular legislative session concluded, lawmakers have approved tax and fee increases on Coloradans of up to $617 million annually without voter consent. The new revenues are enough to give every schoolteacher in Colorado a $11,343.65 per year raise. The tax and fee increases amount to an average of $430 per year

Regressive Fees Fund Transportation Bill 0

Despite being awash with funds from improved revenues and billions of dollars in federal pandemic aid to the state, Democrat legislators have chosen to fund their transportation priorities with regressive new fees that disproportionately impact the poorest Coloradans. The $5.3 billion transportation bill (SB 21-260) working its way through the legislature this week will create approximately $3.8 billion in new

How The Colorado Transportation Bill Circumvents TABOR and Proposition 117 0

Year-after-year, voters continue to send a message to Colorado politicians that they want a chance to vote on tax increases regardless of whether legislators call them “taxes” or “fees.” With this year’s transportation bill (SB 21-260), legislators have found multiple creative ways to disregard the will of the people. Their legal gymnastics to get around