Dems Spew Misleading TABOR Info

Once again, Colorado Democrats are misleading voters when it comes to TABOR and the state budget. As The Center Square reports, Democratic Rep. K.C. Becker claims Colorado can’t make improvements “because the state constitution prohibits the budget from growing with the economy.”

But as Barry Poulson, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Colorado, notes, most of the state revenue is exempt from TABOR limits. First:

“The exempt funds include the revenue from enterprises and the fees collected by government agencies, which have grown rapidly over this period,” he writes. “As a result, over the past decade TABOR has not constrained the growth in spending, and this year the state will spend virtually every dollar of revenue it takes in.”

Second, “Refunds are by definition, a refund of taxpayers having overpaid into our already-bloated state government,” Laura Carno, director of SpringsTaxpayers.com notes. “Speaker Becker and the Boulder Democrats in charge at the Capitol are going to ask voters not only to raise taxes, but to permanently relinquish tax dollars that they never owed the government in the first place.”

And lastly, as former state legislator Penn Pfiffner states:

The county government has the same budget as last year, which increased automatically under the TABOR formula…Jefferson County has collected more than that combined amount, as I understand the situation, and has to rebate back the excess. That should not cause a reduction in any current services. Some thoughtful reporter has to ask why, if the county is collecting more taxes than last year, it is cutting existing services.

Just more smoke & mirrors from the Colorado Dems…nothing new!