Posted on 04/08/2015 6:53:05 AM PDT by george76
Steamboat Springs — Routt County commissioners are among local government officials in Colorado who are railing against the latest plans of the state legislature to appropriate $20 million from the mineral severance tax fund to balance the 2015-16 budget.
"Since I’ve been a commissioner, this is the fourth or fifth time they’ve raided the severance tax to take care of the state’s budget, and to the detriment of local governments,” Routt County Commission Chairman Doug Monger said. “If we don’t make noise about it, it will become a normal event. We have to get out there and say ‘This really hurts.’”
The State Senate voted last week to attach a specific bill regarding the severance tax to the 2015 state budget bill. The Senate approved the $26.4 billion budget bill by a 21-14 vote. It still must be approved by the House.
Proponents of the plan say they need the money to help backfill the state’s general fund budget because they must refund $70 million to the state’s taxpayers under the provisions of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR). TABOR, which caps annual tax collections, requires that excess amounts be refunded.
The severance taxes are imposed by the state on mining and energy companies for the amount of resources they “sever” from the state’s soil.
...
The mayors of Grand Junction and Rifle have joined all three Routt County Commissioners in protesting that a portion of the severance taxes were always meant to go back to local governments to offset the impacts created by those industries
...
County Commissioner Cari Hermacinski characterized the Senate vote as an example of legislators from more densely populated parts of the state taking advantage of under-represented rural areas.
(Excerpt) Read more at t.steamboattoday.com ...
Chickenpooper could care less about “We The People” as he is more interested in his herd of unicorns.
The war on the rural middle class continues: also with the EPA new rules to shut down good paying jobs in mining and other energy production.. from Craig to Montrose.
Western states coalition disputes ‘biased’ federal science on sage grouse.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3269512/posts
REFERENCE---Kristi Culpepper, a muni-bond expert, exposed Chicago’s bonding schemes. She uncovered that taxpayers are paying billions for greedy politicians' shady financial legerdemain: including using long-term financing to cover day-to-day expenses, using bonds to pay pension obligations, and, misappropriating returns from the interest rate swap portfolio as an “ATM” for the city.
==============================================
CONT--Bonding is eternal taxation----insider deals bonding companies made w/ shady pols to get Colorado's bonding business would tell a tale of greedy pols accumulating unimaginable riches through massive govt corruption.
If these bonding deals were effectuated by way of referendum at the ballot box----and misled investors into buying tax-fee muni bonds----the SEC would be interested.
EMAIL enforcement@sec.gov
==============================================
Massive govt corruption might include forgery, falsification of official records, fraudulent state budget entries, tax evasion, illegal wire-transfers, misuse of public office.
Tax-exempt municipal bond investors (including public education bond investors)-- have legal grounds to sue if they were deceived about deceptive bond offerings.
In many cases, bond issues are approved by voters---at the ballot box--so that voters may have also been misled WRT uses of fraudulent bond offerings.
Also culpable are:
<><> bonding companies underwriting possible fraudulent bond issues;
<><> banks holding possibly fraudulent bond proceeds;
<><> State/city's modus operandi in allocating tax-exempt bond proceeds,
<><> the sub rosa acceptance of bond proceeds.
<><> state/city vendors accepting possible fraudulent bond proceeds.
<><> publicly-funded state/city agencies advocating the uses of fraudulent bond proceeds.
===========================================
The SEC, FBI, banking overight agencies, and the IRS, would be interested in the activities of state/city entities WRT bonding.
EMAIL---FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov
EMAIL--enforcement@SEC.gov
Contact the IRS Fraud Unit
EMAIL Banking oversight agencies
============================================
Taxpayers should find out which banks are facilitating this.
<><> Which banks are designated the repositories of municipal tax dollars.
<><> Which banks are dispensing tax-exempt bond proceeds.
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
It seems that the present has the most corrupt government ever.
Or alternative media is exposing the stuff the authorized journalists used to bury.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.