The referenda coming on your 2024 ballot. Dude where's my TABOR? It's time to start building a conservative political machine like the Dems have.
A rundown of all the measures that the legislature referred to your 2024 ballot.
The article below covers the 7 measures that the legislature put on your 2024 ballot for your vote.
I'd say it's worth a quick look, but I would defer judgment until I saw the state's blue book** and more of the actual text instead of a quick summary.
Good to have a sense of what's coming however. Worth a quick look.
One last niblet, a commonly-repeated bit of advice that came from my dad by way of his dad: if you are unsure about something, vote no. Good ideas can always be tried again and that's preferrable to voting in a bad idea.
**I have a reminder in my calendar this year to look into and then share how you can get involved in helping set the state's bluebook language. Be watching early June.
Dude where’s my TABOR?
Did the Assembly Democrats consider that by cutting into TABOR refunds they might jeopardize Gov Polis of the opportunity to hold up giant novelty checks and (erroneously) tie his name to the refunds?
Won't someone please think of Jared Polis' political future?!
The conservative-leaning Common Sense Institute recently released their "TABOR Takings Tracker" a rundown on bills from the last legislative session and their impact on TABOR refunds. That report is linked below.
I'll leave it to you to read up on the report, the table going bill by bill and listing impacts on the budget surplus was especially interesting, but too long to reproduce.
What is reproducible (and striking) is the graph from higher up. I attached that as a screenshot.
The graph is kind of busy, so let me help you orient yourself. In any given fiscal year, the blue bar represents the projected TABOR refund, the amount the government collects beyond its limit.
The bar that sits just to the right of the blue bar shows you how much of that blue bar, your projected refunds, will get eaten by the two bills with the biggest appetite for your money, HB24-1134 and HB24-1311. I linked to those bills below the report in that order if you want to read up. The summary on both is that they take your money and give it others.
Those bills are colored colored gold and green respectively. The other 99 bills which will eat into the TABOR refunds are lumped into the dark blue bar.
What's the red? That's the projected amount that will be left after all those measures take their piece and start eating.
So, for example, in the coming fiscal year, what would have been a $1.82 billion surplus will turn into $1.3 billion (a 29% reduction) after the redistribution of your money.
A quote from the report link sums things up pretty well:
"By the end of the legislative session, lawmakers passed 101 bills that will affect TABOR refunds. Most of these redirect money out of refunds towards targeted tax reductions for specific groups, mainly families and low-income Coloradans. Through such measures, the state will diminish taxpayers’ agency to decide, whether by saving, investing, or donating to charity, how best to allocate money that they would normally be owed."
Diminish our agency to decide how best to use our money. Yep. That should be on a banner above the door to the capitol as long as the folks that vote this kind of policy are in power because it has been a recurring theme with them.
**Couple quick notes:
--Remember that TABOR surpluses do not automatically all come back as checks. They come back in various forms and direct payments back to Coloradans is last on that list.
--I would consider the estimates of the TABOR surpluses for years out beyond the next one to be pretty speculative, that includes both the amount of TABOR refund (and because they're tied, the amount put to the various measures in the report). Kind of like not trusting a forecast out past about 36 hours, I wouldn't try to hold the years beyond next as gospel.
https://commonsenseinstituteco.org/2024-colorado-legislative-session-tabor-takings-tracker/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR23VA6ipUxFYHLMpC6i0UCdnws75us-JqbKply7DxTcFAujHhlyL_K_Siw_aem_AeP77jKvU6F50ISFu9VXsejrdG8PUDuaVgXiJ3GdOKQC53mIwYBD6lynkdYiRg1d9CsnKtrp2SWVfMNNWX39wy0z
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb24-1134
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb24-1311
If you wonder why I harp so much about conservatives getting involved, wonder no more.
Former (term-limited) CO Representative Chris DeGruy Kennedy taking the helm of the ultra-progressive Bell Policy Center provides a perfect object lesson.
The Democrats and liberals in this state are bloody well organized, and have built themselves quite a political machine. It runs smoothly (despite some hiccups and misfires lately).
They incubate candidates in local boards and offices and then help them grow to state offices. They have a robust infrastructure of nongovernmental groups providing money, support, and working on policy.
So, an uber-progressive legislator comes up to the Assembly. When he's term limited out of office, he pops on over to run a leftist policy center.
Oh, and who will replace him at the legislature? The likely candidate I hear is his equally progressive wife.
And the wheel turns.
I won't sugar coat it. Conservatives and independents are starting a full lap behind and limping because we haven't even really warmed up yet. That's the bad news.
The good news is that none of this is written in stone and none of it is permanent. The other bit of good news is that you can take action to change things. Doing so will take more than just being upset, it will take more than just looking around and saying "this isn't the Colorado I know".
Get involved. The Democrats did years back and now get to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The path to bring some balance back to this state follows their tracks. If they can, we can.
There are a thousand ways you can get involved big and small. If you want ideas or a connection to resources, please let me know.
Great article and thank you for the heavy lifting which you do to produce your newsletter!!