Colorado’s spending joyride on a collision course with reality
It is well known by now that Colorado’s budget is on an unsustainable path. While there’s considerable disagreement about what is driving the issue and what the solution might be, one thing is for sure: trying to lay blame on the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) is just pure deflection. As I have written previously, […]
Colorado Legislature’s Over-Spending Problem Explained
Colorado legislators are discovering first-hand the impossibility of having their cake and eating it too. The Joint Budget Committee continues to meet with dozens of departments to reconcile an approximately $750 million budget shortfall in 2025, with some absurdly claiming that deficit is purely a result of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) at work. […]
Course Correction Needed for Colorado’s Economic Outlook
The University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business recently released their 60th annual Business Outlook for 2025, and, despite a moderate outlook in 2025, the report includes some disturbing trends in the Colorado economy. Let’s take a look at some of what’s going wrong. Troubling trends As pointed out by Denver Post business writer Aldo Svaldi, Colorado was the […]
LISTEN: Governor Polis’ 2022 Budget with Ben Murrey
Governor Jared Polis released his FY2022-23 budget proposal in November 2021. On December 2, Independence Institute’s Fiscal Policy Director Ben Murrey went on KLZ 560 AM in Denver to speak with host Kim Monson and discuss the governor’s budget, the massive expansion in state revenues over the past decade, and the economic outlook for the […]
VIDEO: What is TABOR?
Dr. Paul Prentice, senior fellow in fiscal policy here at the Independence Institute, explains what the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) is in one minute!
2015 Thumbnail Guide to Colorado’s Spending Problem
IB-D-2015 (July 2015) Author: Linda Gorman PDF of full Issue Backgrounder Introduction: Colorado state government has a spending problem. Between FY 1999-00 and FY 2013-14, its inflation-adjusted expenditures rose by 38 percent.1 Its inflation-adjusted revenues rose by just 34 percent. Although Colorado’s working age population grew over the period, its private sector employment stagnated.
A Thumbnail Guide to Colorado State Government’s Spending Problem
Colorado state government has a spending problem. Although inflation-adjusted per capita personal income in Colorado is still below its 2003 level, state spending has risen every year since 1999. State tax revenue has risen, but it cannot keep up with the spending.
Citizens’ Budget Panel Event Audio
On Wednesday March 2nd, the Independence Institute held a panel event at the University Club in Denver to discuss the solutions presented in the Citizens’ Budget project. Presenters included project director Penn Pfiffner, Education Center policy analyst Ben DeGrow, Health Care Policy Center director Linda Gorman, and Fiscal Policy Center senior fellow Barry Poulson. Each […]
Obama’s 2012 Transportation Budget
“The Obama administration’s embrace of high-speed rail . . . ignores history, evidence and logic,” argues Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson. “The case against it is overwhelming. The case in favor rests on fashionable platitudes. High-speed rail,” he concludes, “is not an ‘investment in the future’; it’s mostly a waste of money.” Yet Obama’s 2012 […]
The Citizens’ Budget
The report provides an overview of the structure, timing and size of the State budget. We speak to how the problems originated and how things have gone wrong in recent years. The Citizens’ Budget includes legislative, constitutional, and policy recommendations to close the looming state budget gap – without raising taxes – and move Colorado […]
Unfair Government Competition Against Small Business
Unfair Competition exists when a government or quasi-government entity takes advantage of its tax exemption and other privileges to supply private goods to the market in competition with private suppliers. Unfair Competition adversely effects all Americans. Small businesses are most vulnerable. When jobs are lost, the poor, the unemployed, and women are especially damaged. When private enterprises are replaced with less efficient government enterprises, national productivity and competitiveness are adversely impacted. When the tax base is diminished, all taxpayers are injured.
