By Carolyn Martin (CHEC’s Director of Government Relations)

Prepare to Vote

The November 2023 election is fast approaching. Now is the time to start preparing to vote wisely!
 
Generally, ballot initiatives on odd-years deal with tax spending and revenue, along with any measures dealing with TABOR (The Taxpayer Bill of Rights) refunds. The state produces and mails to each household what is called a “Blue Book” which details each statewide initiative on the ballot. While it can be a useful tool, be leery of its analysis of the issues. The Legislative Council committee of the legislature is charged with finalizing the wording in the booklet. The committee consists of 11 Democrats and 7 Republicans. The final wording reflects this membership. Listen to the meeting where they discussed the deceptive wording and the attempts to change it.
 
This year, the two statewide initiatives on the ballot were put forth by the legislature.

• Proposition HH (SB23-303). I recommend a NO vote. See my blog post for more information.
• Proposition II (HB23-1290). I recommend a NO vote. It will allow the state to keep your TABOR refund and instead use it fund the universal preschool program.

By Carolyn Martin (CHEC’s Director of Government Relations)

Proposition HH — Don’t Be Fooled It’s All About TABOR

A transformational ballot initiative will be on the ballot this November and every voter should be well-informed before marking their ballots. Though it will be sold to voters as a reduction in property taxes, the reduction will be minimal (around 0.065%). Not only that, but the legislature doesn’t need to ask the voters to reduce taxes, they could just do it and they have done it in the past. So, why don’t they just lower them? Because the real goal of Proposition HH is to get the voters to neuter the single most powerful constitutional tool citizens have to reign in government taxation and spending.

In 1992, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) was placed in Title X of the Colorado Constitution by the people. Through a formula outlined by TABOR, the government is basically only permitted to expand in line with the growth in population of the state and inflation. If the government collects more money through taxes than the formula dictates, the government must ask the people if they can keep any amount they overtaxed us. [When you see the wording “without raising taxes” on your ballot, it’s usually because the government is asking you if they can keep the monies they collected above the TABOR limit.] Proposition HH will allow the government to essentially overtax every person in the state to the tune of at least $11 billion over the next ten years and keep it to fund their pet projects without asking we, the people.