Amendment 66: Spend More, Get Less
IB-G-2013 (October 2013) Author: Linda Gorman PDF of full Issue Backgrounder Introduction: Amendment 66 will take the money you spend to benefit your children and give it to public education bureaucrats. Education bureaucrats do not necessarily use higher funding to benefit children. They will spend it on things that they like – generous pensions, higher […]
A Billion Dollars Worth of Bad Ideas: Amendment 66 Tax Hike
Amendment 66 would replace Colorado’s flat income tax of 4.63 percent of federal adjusted gross income with the two bracket system shown in Table 1: Colorado Income Tax Rates if Amendment 66 Passes. Passing Amendment 66 also passes SB13-213, the new 141-page state school finance law.
Douglas County: Building a Better Education Model
Effecting successful suburban school reform poses an authentic challenge. Many students do well compared to their peers in neighboring districts, but overall test scores conceal shortcomings. The U.S. spends more per person on education than any other country, yet even middle-class students academically lag their peers in other countries. The fast-growing Douglas County School District (DCSD) south of Denver, Colorado, has attempted a different approach to aim higher.
Penn Pfiffner on the Tax Foundation Podcast Show
With the Proposition 103 tax increase heavily defeated this November, what comes next for Coloradans for low taxes and limited government? Senior fellow Penn Pfiffner was a guest on The Tax Foundation’s podcast show recently to discuss Prop 103’s resounding defeat, the nature of our state budget, government’s role in our lives, and the ongoing […]
Colorado’s Budget: TABOR Still Working
The federal bailout is not stabilizing our state budget, but is in fact exacerbating the structural deficit in the budget.
An Academic Arms Race: The catastrophic rise of taxpayer-funded salaries at the University of Colorado and its peer institutions
In the last three years alone, CU’s budget has ballooned from $1.9 billion to $2.4 billion, with increases to salaries eating up a big part of the total. Between 2006 and 2009, CU’s three chancellors received a collective annual taxpayer-funded raise of more than $500,000.9 And even in the aftermath of the cuts recently announced by Benson, Denver Chancellor Roy Wilson could still make over $700,000 this year.
Students, meanwhile, have been forced to foot the bill through skyrocketing tuition increases. CU-Boulder undergraduates saw an average tuition increase of 9.3 percent this year; in Denver, the average was 8.5 percent; and in Colorado Springs, 7.5 percent. These increases followed 2007-2008 hikes ranging from 7 percent at CU-Colorado Springs and 14.6 at CU-Boulder.
Citizens to Politicians: We Like TABOR
Colorado citizens not only understand, they support the specific provisions of TABOR.
