Implementing a Just Tax System in Colorado and Strengthening Our Fiscal Constitution
Over much of our history Coloradans have successfully constrained the growth of government through our fiscal constitution. Our State Constitution embodied fiscal rules designed to constrain the power of government to tax and spend, rules requiring a balanced budget, debt limits, and voting and procedural rules. Our fiscal constitution has served us well; our state prospered due in no small part to the fiscal rules embodied in our constitution. However, in the post-WWII period it was clear that our fiscal rules were not constraining the growth of government. Both state and local governments increased taxes and spending grew at rates far in excess of the growth of the private economy. This unconstrained growth of government triggered a tax revolt beginning in the late 1970’s.
Amendment 23: A Critique
The question asked in Amendment 23 is a very simple one: should the state raise taxes $11 billion? That is not, of course, how the proposed amendment to the Colorado Constitution is presented by the teachers’ unions, but that is in fact what they are asking Colorado citizens to do. Since the teachers unions have obfuscated the issue, it is important to begin by showing how the proposed amendment would create this $11 billion fund which would mostly benefit the teachers’ union.
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.
TABOR Comparison Data and Projections: Appendices A, B, C, D
APPENDIX A: PDF of full Appendix A Scribd version of full Appendix A State of Colorado Growth Comparison, Two Ten-Year Periods: Pre-TABOR (1983-1992) and TABOR (1993-2002), in Employment (All, Government, Non-Government); TOTAL STATE Revenues and State Outlays; Per-Capita Personal Income, Revenues & outlays; Gross State Product, Unemployment, population and Inflation. APPENDIX B PDF of full […]
Surplus Expenditures in Colorado
This issue paper examines the disposition of surplus revenue in Colorado. The evidence reveals that special interests now determine the disposition of most of the surplus revenue. The result is less efficient and equitable budgetary decisions than would have been made in the absence of surplus revenue.
