FISCAL - Publications Archives - Independence Institute

The Tax and Regulate Reality Behind Governor Polis’s Libertarian Image 0
- September 26, 2022
To what extent is Jared Polis a pro-liberty or libertarian governor? Here we can take “libertarian” broadly to mean support for free markets and personal liberties. There is no precise measure of the “libertarianness” of Polis’s various policies and actions that might yield some overall objective score. Some of his policies and actions are pro-liberty,
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Addressing the Skills Gap: A Market-Based Approach for Colorado 0
- January 24, 2022
Colorado has experienced a skilled labor shortage for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic further exposed the underlying problems in the workforce. The state has a high percentage of workers who are particularly vulnerable to forced closures compared with other states, yet those workers tend to lack the skills necessary to fill more secure, in-demand jobs
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Unequal Opportunities, Unequal Outcomes: The COVID-19 Recession in Colorado 0
- November 1, 2021
INTRODUCTION By mid-March 2020, it was apparent that a major pandemic was in process. Estimates were that millions upon millions of Americans would die from COVID-19 and that there would be insufficient hospital resources to treat all the expected chronic cases. As a result, almost all states instituted shelter-in-place emergency orders. Given the available information,
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Regressive Fees Fund Transportation Bill 0
- May 18, 2021
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
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How The Colorado Transportation Bill Circumvents TABOR and Proposition 117 0
- May 17, 2021
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
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Fees, Enterprises, and Colorado 0
- July 29, 2020
This issue paper discusses how Colorado has created loopholes, such as fees and enterprises, to bypass the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).
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