The Tax and Regulate Reality Behind Governor Polis’s Libertarian Image
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, […]
Regressive Taxation in Colorado: Two Competing Views
Colorado has a regressive tax burden that punishes the poor. It’s not fair. Voters in the Centennial State heard that a lot last year, but is it true? If so, how and why, and what should be done about it? Key Takeaways: The Colorado tax code imposes an overall regressive tax burden. While the overall […]
House Bill 1187: Why should state government get to spend more just because people work more?
Increasing state spending as population grows assumes that larger populations require more government services. This may not always be the case, but it at least refrains from taxing people simply because they work harder.
Why date rapists hate TABOR
by Jon Caldara The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights does NOT limit tax and spending. In fact, TABOR allows Colorado governments, all 3,700 of them, to rake in and keep unlimited amounts of money and heap unlimited amounts of debt upon your children. It requires you merely be asked first. That’s it. Ask first. You won’t […]
Back To Basics For Tax Reform In Colorado
It is difficult to explain the 60 odd tax bills before the Colorado Legislature this year. Every interest group in the state seems to be clamoring for tax refunds, tax cuts, or expenditures of surplus revenue to benefit their interest group. If the legislature responds to these special interests this year, as they did last year, we will end up with more loopholes and more complexity in our tax system. We seem to have forgotten the lessons learned from the tax reforms launched by the Reagan revolution, and it is time for Colorado legislators to return to these basic principles of tax reform. I will discuss first the principles that should guide tax reform in Colorado, and then some of the proposed tax bills.
