Colorado’s Proposition 103 will raise state taxes $532 million in the first year and about $2.9 billion in the first five years. It proposes to raise the income tax rate on individuals and families, as well as small businesses, and simultaneously to raise the state sales tax rate. Proposition 103 is the only state issue on this fall’s ballot.

In 2009 the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 09-108, more commonly known as FASTER. Signed by Governor Bill Ritter, the bill relies on distortions and deliberate misdirections to subvert Colorado’s Constitution and silence the voice of the people. The bill depends on continued silence for its provisions to move forward. Under FASTER, Colorado families are being forced to pay an unconstitutional tax of almost $100 million annually. This tax hits everyone who registers a vehicle in the state squarely in the pocketbook—a tax that was enacted directly by the legislature without a vote of the people.

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!

Our research found that information on local government debt is available to the public … on two conditions. First, citizens must have Sherlock Holmes-like instincts. Information about local debt can be found, but plan on digging for it. And, second, the results of your search may yield information that is considerably outdated.

This year the Colorado legislature is debating a bill, (SB228) that would eliminate the Arveschoug-Bird Amendment. That Amendment was enacted by the legislature in 1992, a few months before the voters of Colorado enacted the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) Amendment. Arveschoug-Bird caps the growth of general fund spending at 6 percent per year. With the 6 percent cap in place, surplus revenue above this limit is transferred into the Highway Users Trust Fund and to capital construction.

There are several reasons why this bill would be fiscally irresponsible. The bill would eliminate what has proven to be a very effective constraint on the growth in general fund expenditures, and also on how state revenues are allocated between transportation and capital projects, and other expenditures. The bill also raises constitutional issues and the role of the initiative and referendum process in amending the constitution.

Two years ago, lawmakers asked for a “timeout” from the spending restrictions of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) in order to allow the state budget to rebound from the recession of 2001-2002. Referendum C, approved by a narrow 52 percent to 48 percent margin, erased the tABOR spending limits for five years and permanently increased the spending caps thereafter. Voters were assured by Ref C proponents that K-12 education, colleges and universities, and health care would split the lion’s share of the resources if the measure passed. But a funny thing happened after Ref C passed. Spending on programs that rarely were identified with Ref C has grown at more than twice the rate of spending on education and health care. Now, some of the key players in convincing voters to pass Ref C are dissatisfied, and voters have cause to believe they were sold a bill of goods.

The Colorado Division of Human Resources (DHR) conducts an annual compensation survey to support a state policy that provides competitive total compensation to ensure a qualified and competent workforce. Because this survey is significantly flawed in its estimation of retirement compensation, the comparison between private and public sector compensation is distorted. In particular, DHR substantially understaes retirement compensation for career public employees in Colorado. To indicate the magnitude of understatement, our study of PERA retirement benefits provides an historical baseline from which to evaluate retirement compensation. Improved estimates of implicit retirement compensation would allow a more realistic comparison between private and public sector compensation, and would support better decision making about allocation of scarce tax dollars for public employee compensation.

In 2005 the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released a video to help defeat proposed measures like Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) in other states. Voters in several states are considering such measures in 2006, including Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and Oregon. The CBPP video’s message is that TABOR devastates the economy and the ability of government to fund schools, roads and health care. By understanding the truth, however, viewers will note that they have nothing to fear from passing their own TABOR. Unfortunately, they may not recognize the CBPP video for the highly misleading propaganda piece that it is.