Vote NO! on C and D

Or:

It's YOUR money, Colorado, not theirs!

What am I talking about?

If you live in Colorado, you've doubtless seen the advertisements all over TV and yard signs that have been sprouting up about the issue of "Referenda C and D". What are these referenda, you might ask? Well, it's quite complicated, but I'm going to try to boil it down for y'all. Basically, a vote FOR C allows the Colorado state government to keep tax dollars that would have been refunded to taxpayers and instead spend them, and a vote FOR D allows the state to issue more debt to pay for even more state spending. The two referenda are tied together, so that D will only pass if C passes.

A history lesson is called for here, because it is my thinking that these two referenda are a direct attack by state Democrats, who after last year control both houses of the Colorado legislature, against TABOR, or the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. This was a measure passed by the Republican controlled legislature in 1992 which established constitutional limits on state spending and increases in spending. TABOR limited increases in state spending to the inflation rate and rate of population growth, and mandated that all state revenues above the amount of allowed spending be refunded to all Colorado taxpayers.

Background links on TABOR here:
Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights is leading the way
Wikipedia: Taxpayer Bill of Rights
An Analysis of Misleading Attacks on Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights

The basic premise of those who brought Referenda C & D up for a vote next month is that the state budget has "suffered" because of the spending increase limits forced on it by TABOR. Schools, roads, welfare, blah blah blah, all are suffering due to limits on the state budget, even though that budget has grown in every year since TABOR was passed. The culprit, they claim, was the recession of five years ago, which caused state spending to be curtailed sharply. There is a chart illustrating this claim on page five of the Colorado Blue Book. (the Blue Book is a publication of the Colorado secretary of state explaining each election) Without the recession, spending would have gone up to here, it says, but instead it stayed down here!

Well, what do you know. Someone actually managed to get a frickin' government body to rein in its spending in lean times. Will wonders never cease? Yep, they're trying to cease this wonder all right. With the simple cry of "give up your tax refund for five years", the "Yes on C&D" crowd say that the state can catch up to the level of spending that TABOR would have allowed if only we didn't have that nasty recession a few years ago.

First, a set of links.
Pro C&D links:
Vote Yes on C & D (Note the professional web and graphics design)

Anti C&D links:
Referendum C: Colorado's Massive Tax Increase
It's Simple, TABOR Makes Government Accountable
Defeat C
Podcast: Referendum C and the Colorado Budget
The Dirty Dozen: 12 Reasons to defeat "C" and "D"

Unfortunately, I'm afraid that C and D are going to pass. Why? Well, the Pro-C&D people seem to have a lot of money on their side. Plus, these same people were voted into office just a year ago in this state, which is growing more and more liberal all the time. HOWEVER, I do not think that very many people have taken the time to understand the issue. The Pro side is selling it as for schools and roads and all kinds of good stuff. Still, it's not something that motivates the ignorant to go the polls. Therefore, if enough conservatives, libertarians, and Republicans come out to vote against these referenda, they might not pass.

Ay, there's the rub... Our "Republican" governor, Bill Owens, has come out in SUPPORT of these two referenda! The state GOP is split over the issue, with only Mark Holtzman, candidate for governor, coming out against them. So far, he'll have my vote next year. I still need to read up on him and what he is campaigning on.

What kills me about the "Yes on C & D" ads is this new one that accuses the opponents of C & D of "LYING" about it. They claim that their opponents are saying that Coloradans' FEDERAL tax refunds will be taken away! That is so stupid as to be laughable, but I'm sure that there are plenty of people who think that the STATE can take away your FEDERAL refund! So, of course, no one is saying this on their opponents' side, what IS being said is that STATE REFUNDS FROM TABOR will be taken away. Duh. Just like Democrats, though, accuse your opponent of doing something (lying) that you yourself are doing.

In summary, C & D are an attack on government accountability and fiscal responsibility. In 1992, our elected officials actually managed to get those things into the state constitution. And now, only 13 short years later, those very things are about to disappear. Why? Because the idiot Republicans in this state can't stick together for anything, and have allowed the Democrats to rebuild and take back what they had lost. Of course, when you have nominal Republicans whose power base comes from conservatives ignoring the concerns of that same base, what do you expect?

UPDATE: For those of you who arrive here by googling for information about Referenda C & D, I have a related post here: More on Referenda C & D. An anonymous commenter mentioned higher education funding, and that without Ref C, funding for state colleges would be cut to the point that many kids could not afford college. That may be true with current thinking, but I am exploring the issue in that post.

Please, whether you agree or disagree, leave comments, look around my blog, stick around. If you agree with me on stuff, then great, if not, then that's great too, please debate me. Maybe we can all learn something, maybe we can't. Who knows?