Tag: Tabor

There is nowhere near enough money for Colorado to continue to do the business of the state as things stand, according to an influential team of researchers at the University of Denver. State lawmakers will either have to raise more money or cut away the kind of programs and services most Americans view as measures of the baseline quality of life achieved over centuries in the world's wealthiest nation.

Controversial Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer gave a boost to opponents of Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights when she vetoed a similar proposal in her state Thursday, saying "unreasonable spending limits" become irrelevant and a burden. She pointed to budget wrangling and overrides in Colorado as evidence that the nearly 20-year-old Taxpayer Bill of Rights experiment here is a failure.

It wasn't bad enough that Douglas Bruce lost a bid to join the Colorado Springs City Council last week. It still wasn't bad enough when he was arrested Friday for tax evasion.

State Senator Morgan Carroll and Representative Lois Court's ballot-initiative transparency bill, HB 1035, passed Monday unanimously out of the Senate and with a wide majority in the House. The deep support for the bill is notably rare when it comes to legislation that seeks to tweak Colorado's ballot initiative process, an intentionally loose process loved by citizens and special interests alike.

A handful of Democrats stood behind Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, as he announced today a citizens' initiative to roll back tax rates in hopes of generating $1.63 billion over three years for higher education and K-12 education.

Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos has promised an exciting first week of the legislative session, with a revised version of last year’s Senate Bill 6--modeled after Colorado's TABOR--scheduled to reach the floor.

Though the power of the Tea Party weighed on the minds of some Republican legislators today, it was not strong enough to stop the passage of a resolution that would make it more difficult for people to amend the constitution through the ballot amendment process.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper rolled out a budget plan Tuesday in which he proposes trying to make up hundreds of millions of dollars in shortfalls by mostly slashing elementary school funding. His plan would cut the K-12 budget by $375 million. Wednesday morning advocacy group Great Education Colorado sent out a call for Coloradans to oppose the Hickenlooper plan. The group succinctly describes how the costs will translate around the state and at local schools.

In a Colorado historically strapped for cash, where Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper is proposing deep cuts to elementary school education and the Republican majority in the House is pushing for business tax breaks, a new civil unions bill could generate millions in revenue for the state through sales taxes and fees and by moving people off of public assistance, according to a report released today by the UCLA Williams Institute.

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.