Democrat State Representative Sean Camacho recently penned a guest commentary for the Denver Post packed with false claims about Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR.
Camacho argues that TABOR is a “Frankenstein’s monster” that grew beyond its noble intentions and its creators’ ability to contain it, and that it allows for corporate loopholes at the expense of Coloradans. Let’s unpack those claims.
TABOR a Monster?
Per TABOR’s language, the constitutional amendment was passed by voters “to reasonably restrain most the growth of government.” It does so by limiting growth of an ever-shrinking portion of the state budget to a modest formula that combines population growth and inflation. TABOR also requires, among other things, voter approval of new or increased taxes.
So, if we take Camacho’s claims seriously–that TABOR has grown beyond that intent–we might conclude that TABOR has prevented Colorado government from reasonable growth, or even shrunk the size and scope of the state.
However, recent research by Independence Institute shows that Camacho’s claim is demonstrably false.
Colorado’s government has actually grown well beyond what was ever intended by TABOR, and voters now have much less direct say in their taxation than when TABOR was passed in 1992.
For example, whereas voters once had a say over two-thirds of the state budget, they now enjoy meaningful consent over only a third of it. Voter-approved general fund revenue continues to grow slowly, while TABOR-exempt cash funds, usually in the form of taxes badly disguised as “fees,” have exploded.
If TABOR hasn’t actually restricted much government growth, then what is the actual intent behind removing it?
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to deduce that Colorado’s progressive legislators dislike TABOR because they prefer voters have no meaningful say over how they are taxed.
Corporate Loopholes a Choice
Camacho attempted to buttress his anti-TABOR arguments by citing the Colorado Supreme Court ruling against the City of Lakewood, which found that the city had wrongly raised taxes without asking voters first.
In short, Lakewood created a new tax, without voter consent, on telecom companies in 1996, four years after TABOR passed.
Now, the city owes those telecom companies $42 million in refunds, all because it neglected to simply ask voters.
In a laughable display of doublespeak, Camacho bizarrely attempted to convince his readers that the city getting caught with its hand in the cookie jar is the same as TABOR magically creating a corporate tax loophole!
The reality is that Lakewood’s city council made a conscious choice to skirt TABOR, just as state legislators consciously choose to create TABOR-exempt cash funds to avoid going to voters.
Holding greedy governments accountable is an important part of what TABOR was designed to do, and at least in this particular case, it has done that well.
The irony should not be lost that, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the one who calls Frankenstein’s creation a monster is the real villain.
