Proposition 103: What is the Cost to Colorado Taxpayers?
Proposition 103 is an initiative that will increase Colorado tax rates and require the state to spend the money on government schools. Prop 103 increases the personal income tax, the corporate income tax, and the statewide sales and use tax for the years 2012 through 2016.
The Fiscal Impact Statement prepared by Colorado’s Legislative Council Staff estimates the cost of the tax increase at $2.9 billion. However, the cost for Colorado taxpayers will be significantly greater than staff estimates. Legislative Council uses static analysis, measuring only the direct impact of the higher taxes on state revenue. They ignore the negative impact the tax increase will have on economic growth and jobs in Colorado.
How Colorado Has Raised $300 Million in Debt Without Asking Its Citizens: The Colorado Bridge Enterprise
Colorado’s citizens are supposed to have a final say before our state can borrow money. But the 2009 FASTER law subverted citizens’ rights to vote on tax and debt issues. The law allows an unelected group of bureaucrats to appoint an unelected administrator and together borrow whatever amounts of debt can be backed by FASTER funds. On December 1, 2010, they did just that. And now Colorado’s citizens are burdened with $300 million of newly issued debt—with the promise of more to come. Because of the borrowed money, it is unlikely a future legislature can ever repeal the FASTER tax. All this, and we weren’t asked!
Ritter's Phantom Carbon Tax
by William Yeatman and Amy Oliver Cooke Ratepayers can’t see it on their bill, and they won’t hear about it from Governor Bill Ritter. But a central component of his New Energy Economy is a big, hidden energy tax that makes customers pay for the controversial theory of global warming. In order to make Ritter’s […]
Why Colorado Should Shift to a Defined Contribution Retiree Health Plan
By Barry W. Poulson, Ph.D. Colorado taxpayers are on the hook for more than $1 billion in unfunded liabilities incurred in the defined benefit retiree health plan administered by the Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA). An additional $79 million in unfunded liabilities was incurred in 2008, reflecting both a rapid growth in retiree benefits and […]
A Fiscal Roadmap for Colorado
Colorado appears to be at a crossroads similar to that in California in the late 1980s. At that point California was a dynamic growing economy. That prosperity reflected a fiscal constitution that kept the growth of government in line with the growth of the private economy. California’s GANN Amendment, which was a precursor of the TABOR Amendment in Colorado, limited the growth of state revenue and spending to the sum of inflation and population growth. In the late 1980s, under pressure from the education employee lobby, the California legislature abandoned the GANN Amendment, and the rest is history.
Tax and Spending Limits: Theory, Analysis, and Polic
Tax and spending limits (TELs) are budgetary rules that determine how much taxes and/or expenditures can increase from one year to the next. TELs can be statutory or constitutional rules. Statutory TELs can be modified by legislative action, while constitutional TELs can only be modified by a majority vote of citizens. TELs may originate through a legislative statute or referendum, or they may be initiated by citizens in states that provide for this form of direct democracy. TELs are now in place in 26 states.
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.
