Free Republic

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...

Speaking at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on July 3rd, Colorado Education Association (CEA) President Kerrie Dallman referred to the school district of Jefferson County (JeffCo) – where teachers have staged a “sick-out” and students left classes to protest throughout last week – as one of three in her state in which the teachers’ union was “working against hostile school boards.” “I also want to say thank you to the staff and leaders from the 18 states around the country who were sending in 48 staff under the NEA shared staffing...

Formation of district and imposition of assessments 'invalidated' by ruling . Boulder County commissioners didn't have the legal authority to establish a Local Improvement District created to charge rural residential subdivision property owners the bulk of the costs of rehabilitating those subdivisions' paved county roads, according to a Friday Boulder County District Court ruling. The Board of County Commissioners "exceeded its jurisdiction and abused its discretion in authorizing and forming the Subdivision Paving Local Improvement District and imposing assessments on properties within the District," Senior District Court Judge J. Robert Lowenbach wrote. ... The judge further ordered Boulder County to...

Thirty-three hifalutin members of Colorado’s political elite — state legislators, former legislators, board of education officials, city and county politicians, and assorted insiders — have locked arms in whining solidarity as plaintiffs in what’s called a federal case. Why? They lost an election . . . way back in 1992! Now, as the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals put it, “Plaintiffs claim that they have been deprived of their power over taxation and revenue.” Boo hoo. Back in 1992, the pesky people of Colorado petitioned the Taxpayer Bill of Rights onto the ballot and passed it, against the objections...

DENVER - Current and former elected officials wishing to undo the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, better known as TABOR, argued on Monday in federal appeals court that they have standing and the court has the authority to hear their complaint. A total of 33 plaintiffs brought the suit against Gov. John Hickenlooper in May 2011, challenging the constitutionality of TABOR, a law limiting tax increases unless Colorado voters approve. A few months later, Attorney General John Suthers sought to have the case dismissed on the grounds that none of the plaintiffs had standing and the courts didn't have the proper...

Are Colorado citizens unconstitutionally infringing on the right of state government to hike up taxes and spend as legislators choose? That’s what a lawsuit filed last week in federal court alleges. The plaintiffs are a thoroughly bipartisan collection of 34 sitting legislators, former legislators, former U.S. congressmen, school board officials, local politicians and other assorted bigwigs of the state’s political class. Their complaint in Kerr v. Colorado states, “An effective legislative branch must have the power to raise and appropriate funds. When the power to tax is denied, the legislature cannot function effectively to fulfill its obligations in a representative...

DENVER (AP) - Republican and Democratic lawmakers are challenging Colorado's strict and tax & spending limits in federal court. The Denver Post reported that the suit would be filed Monday. Among those challenging the Taxpayers Bill of Rights - or TABOR - are Democratic Rep. Andy Kerr of Lakewood and former Republican state Sen. Norma Anderson. TABOR requires lawmakers to ask voters to raise taxes. It also limits the amount of tax revenue the state can keep and spend. The suit alleges that it violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of a small-R "republican" government where elected representatives make decisions on...

Whenever someone says “you know I am good for it,” or “I am going to pay you back really soon,” or “I am just a little short right now,” it is safe to conclude that you are not going to be paid and that the person to whom you foolishly lent money is broke. When companies have a ‘temporary cash shortage,’ even for a day or two, they go bankrupt. Frontier, a onetime independent airline had a profitable business, but due to a creditor refusing to renew an agreement, it went bankrupt. No matter how the mainstream media wants to...

In retaliation for Citizen's cutting up the City Council's "2C" no-limit General Budget Credit Card, the Fearless Leaders of Colorado Springs have stopped watering/maintaining city parks... and removed trashcans. No Cans for You! No habla de Sign? Poopid is as Poopid does. Unfunded Mandate City Council Group Portrait

Candy, soda, Amazon purchases and select software will now be taxed after Gov. Bill Ritter yesterday signed into law a group of controversial bills that will suspend or eliminate a series of tax credits and exemptions. Ritter’s signature caps a month-long legislative process that pitted Republicans vs. Democrats in a heated and often bitter partisan battle. Republicans have consistently positioned the nine bills as business-killing measures, while Democrats say they are showing the leadership that’s necessary in the worst fiscal environment since the Great Depression. The nine bills are expected to generate $15.6 million in revenue this fiscal year and...

In my home state of Colorado we have a little thing called the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, or TABOR. TABOR is a ballot measure that was passed in 1992 by the citizens of Colorado to limit the State from imposing new or higher taxes on Coloradoans without the consent of the citizens via referendum (taxes can escalate based upon population growth and inflation). Herb Fenster, an attorney in Boulder, Colorado, is now suing the citizens of Colorado over TABOR claiming that it violates Article IV, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution which requires the Feds to ensure the States provide...

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers this morning said he will vote no on three of four state supreme court justices who are up for retention in November's elections and yes on Justice Nancy Rice. Suthers will vote against retaining Chief Judge Mary Mullarkey and judges Alex Martinez and Michael Bender... Most Republicans are supporting the effort to deny retention of all four justices who are up for retention. Mullarkey is widely despised by Colorado's Republicans because she and the other four justices are so blatantly partisan in deciding politically controversial cases. If Mullarkey is retained as chief justice this year,...

[V]oters in two liberal states on opposite ends of the country will also take up measures to limit spending. The outcomes will give us a clear sense of the public mood toward runaway spending. ... The voter-initiated measures on next month's ballot are modeled after Colorado's 1992 Taxpayer Bill of Rights (Tabor). They prohibit state spending from increasing faster than the growth of state population plus inflation in any given year. Extra revenue would be rebated back to the taxpayers, and if officials wanted to raise taxes beyond the limit they would have to seek a public referendum. Tabor worked...

One hundred conservative Mainers attended a Tea Party this afternoon in rural Alton, Maine (north of Bangor). Speakers and conversations focused on Maine's referendum laden election in November, Jason Levesque (republican candidate for Maine's Second District), and Paul LeBlanc (republican candidate for governor). There was no obvious press coverage of the event. Although invited, none of Maine's congress critters were in attendance, nor were any of their representatives. There was little, if any, pre-meeting publicity in Maine's mainstream media. In November Maine voters will have the opportunity to affirm that marriage is legally defined as being between one man and...

Taxes Vs. Fees: What's The Difference? The word "fee" has been tossed around a lot lately. Cities are increasingly passing or considering raising the amount of money residents pay to use recreation centers, libraries, and trash collection services. Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute, said politicians should just be asking the voters for more money if they want it. Hickenlooper said he was not ruling out the possibility of going to voters and asking for a tax hike but hopes a review of departments and fee increases will help them avoid it.

Tabor in Colorado was working till it got partially gutted/partially ignored.. Why not spread the movement.... Spending can not increase more than 2.5% or the rate of inflation. If lawmakers vote to increase it beyond that, they automatically suffer a 20% pay cut for the attempt.

As Colorado's Democrat governor effectively signed away a long-standing policy limiting the growth of the state's budget, a key legislative ally called today for rolling back other restraints on taxing and spending. Incoming Senate Democrat leader John Morse welcomed the enactment of controversial Senate Bill 228--diverting billions of dollars away from transportation projects in coming years--by promising that the fight "is just beginning" to retool the state's other constitutional taxing and spending limits. That double-punch left Republicans incredulous, and they pointed out that only months ago, Colorado voters soundly rejected a ballot proposal that would have gutted the perennially popular...

Lawyer says court ruling allows state to raise taxes without a vote. The Legislature could repeal nearly $2 billion in tax breaks without asking voters permission. Sharon Eubanks ... shocking analysis of a recent state Supreme Court decision, which she said gives legislators the power to raise taxes without a vote of the people. The people's right to vote on tax increases was granted in the 1992 Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. TABOR is one of Colorado's hallmark laws in the last 20 years and has imposed some of the strictest budget limits of any state government. But on March 16,...

Colorado voters will face the longest ballot in a century this November. The 18 questions on the ballot deal with some of the state's most hotly debated social and economic issues - from abortion and gambling to taxes on gas and oil companies and a partial repeal of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. An electoral war between unions and their foes has made this the longest ballot since 1912 - the first year that citizen groups got access to the ballot - when there were 32 questions. The union war accounts for seven of this year's questions. It began with...

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Supporters of an effort to repeal new taxes on beer, wine, soda and other beverages raised 15 times as much money as repeal opponents in the latest financial reporting period. The Fed Up With Taxes coalition raised nearly $375,000 for its repeal campaign between May 28 and July 15, according to reports filed with the Maine ethics commission. A tax repeal opposition group, Health Coverage for Maine, raised just over $25,000 for the same period.