HB 1342 Exploits Colorado Supreme Court Ruling, Adds New Tax

As noted in a previous posting, the state legislature moved swiftly to add new taxes – adding a proposal literally within hours of receiving a briefing that advised the Joint Budget Committee that it was within their power, thanks to language in the decision upholding the Mill Levy Tax Freeze.  That proposal became the latest bill attempting to bypass TABOR, “exploiting a partisan Colorado Supreme Court overreach to violate the state constitution and repeal tax credits without a vote of the people.”

“This Tuesday, HB-1342 (PDF) will be voted on in the House Finance Committee. It will be the first of perhaps many bills that for the first time will remove sales tax waivers without a vote of the people – a direct violation of both the letter and spirit of TABOR. Some existing tax waivers cover the essentials of life that people rely on like food, gasoline, and other credits that have been on the books for as long as 80 years. If HB-1342 passes, they could use it as a template to remove up to $1.5 billion per year in all sorts of tax waivers and credits – clearly net tax increases -without going to a vote of the people.”

This bill is almost certainly only the first of many to propose new taxes on the already overburdened citizenry of Colorado – taxes made possible only by the outrageous Colorado Supreme Court ruling upholding Governor Ritter’s Mill Levy Tax Freeze.

View the listing of potential new taxes enabled by this rogue Supreme Court – then take the survey to see how many new taxes might be imposed upon you as a result.  Stop them before they take more of your rights – vote “NO” on retaining these unjust justices on the bench in 2010.