Colorado's Referendum C - A Tax Increase

As that old saying goes, "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a tax." And that's what Colorado's Referendum C is about.

Politicians would have us believe that because they want to spend 13 billion dollars that has already been collected, and would normally be refunded to the tax payers of Colorado - that this is not a tax increase. Talk about Clintonesque.

One of the reasons Colorado weathered the recent recession was because, during the previous boom, spending had been limited by the TABOR ACT. Other states spent it when they had it and raised taxes when they didn't have it. TABOR limited spending based on inflation and state population increase. Spending still increased, but proportionately to the increase cost of providing state services.

The Heritage Foundation has a very good treatise by Alison Acosta Fraser on why Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights Should Not Be Breached .


The bottom line is: Are Colorado tax payers dumb enough not to see the legislature's spending of 13 billion dollars of their money as a tax increase?