(Alexandria, VA) -- As the battle over Colorado's "Taxpayer's Bill of Rights" (TABOR) heats up, the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is working to arm citizens with the truth surrounding the success of the landmark tax and spending limitation amendment. The non-partisan group, which has over 5,500 members in Colorado, has joined with the Colorado Union of Taxpayers (CUT) to provide voters with a fact for each day leading up to the November 1 vote on Referendums C and D, which would weaken TABOR if enacted.
"Referendum C is merely an attempt to hoodwink taxpayers out of billions of dollars that would otherwise be returned to them," said NTU Director of Government Affairs Paul Gessing. "However, NTU plans to expose the big spenders' manufactured 'crisis' over TABOR as nothing more than political sleight-of-hand."
"Colorado has led the nation in personal income growth and job growth, resulting in increased government revenues even in the absence of tax increases," said CUT President Penn Pfiffner. "We're here to remind taxpayers that these are facts they can't and shouldn't ignore."
Colorado's TABOR, first enacted in 1992, limits state and local spending growth to the rate of inflation plus population, and requires voter approval for tax increases. Referendum C would allow state government to keep five years worth of taxpayers' refunds, while Referendum D would grant the state an additional $1.2 billion in borrowing authority. "Fact of the Day" highlights:
- During the decade of the '80s, before TABOR, Colorado's effective state income tax rate increased by 15 percent, the gasoline tax rose by 214 percent, and Colorado lagged the nation economically. Now, Colorado's economy is among the strongest in the U.S.
- Estimates of Referendum C's cost to taxpayers have already risen from $3.1 billion to $3.7 billion (an increase of nearly 20 percent) -- there's no telling how much higher that price tag may climb.
- Rather than harming the state's budget by slowing the growth of government spending in good economic times, TABOR has been instrumental in reducing budget deficits. Smaller budget deficits mean fewer cutbacks during tough economic times (as in 2002).
- Coloradans should demand that the requirements of Amendment 23 are scaled back. The Amendment mandates that funding for K-12 education rise by inflation plus one percentage point a year through 2010.
"Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights was enacted by voters who were tired of the 'spend more, tax more' attitude in government," said Gessing. "Coloradans shouldn't soon forget that by chipping away at TABOR, politicians hope to someday return to that stale tax-and-spend doctrine."
NTU is a non-partisan citizen group working for lower taxes, smaller government, and greater economic freedom at all levels. Note: The TABOR "Fact of the Day," along with studies on tax and spending limitation measures, may be accessed at www.ntu.org.