Stating that Colorado needs to be more pro-business, Gov. John Hickenlooper cut deep into K-12, further sacrificed state employee earnings, and shut down some state parks and services in the budget proposal he delivered Tuesday.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis today released a seven-page “Roadmap to Revitalization,” which like most political plans is long on catch phrases and short on details. In a nutshell, the plan calls for making Colorado more pro-business by reducing regulations and holding the line on taxes.
Tomorrow, Maine voters will decide on whether or not to retain a tax overhaul passed by that state’s legislature last year. The Maine proposal is being described as an innovative approach to stabilizing state revenues. The aim is to lessen…
Doug Bruce remains for now one step ahead of the law. The controversial father of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights is apparently running from the law by staying at home and refusing to answer the door. In a high…
DENVER– An official snow day at the capitol Wednesday didn’t stop education advocates from filing into the West Foyer where lawmakers unveiled a desperate plan to raise taxes to shore up the state’s struggling education system. The upbeat note struck by the speakers, though, mostly succeeded at conjuring images of the wide stormy seas they are setting out to sail. Captained by state Rep. Debbie Benefield, D-Arvada, the group is asking voters in a recession to amend the constitution to lift tax limits set by Colorado’s revered Taxpayers Bill of Rights.
The Denver Post today posted a practical look at the recession reality of anti-tax conservative Colorado Springs. City lawmakers working within the shrinking city budget are shutting down services. Street lights are blinking out; beat cops, vice and burglary…
In an interview with a Colorado Springs radio talk show host Tuesday, former lieutenant governor and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Jane Norton said she has never worked as a lobbyist. She was responding to callers looking to feel out her conservative credentials.
“On the lobbyist thing, I’ve not been a lobbyist,” she said.
The Colorado Independent yesterday noted Gov. Bill Ritter’s strong language during his State of the State address on the three tax-slashing initiatives headed to the ballot in November. Ritter called them dangerous and backwards. Should they pass, the…
In the face of the state’s mounting budget crisis, state Rep. Joel Judd plans to introduce two bills next month that would dissolve tax-free business “enterprise zones” and that would levy taxes on services across the state. “The question is: Do we provide education for children or do we get to go to a salon without paying a tax?” he told the Independent.
As Colorado wrestles with an already lean state budget growing leaner by the day — one that has forced Gov. Bill Ritter to propose repeated controversial cuts to state services this year — a trio of budget busting anti-tax initiatives is speeding its way to the 2010 ballot. The dramatic nature of the initiatives, which plainly seek to shrink state government, and their timing, coming as they do amid an historic budget crisis, has sparked high media interest and political buzz.
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