Who really likes taxes? I consider them to one of two things. Necessary evils for the things that we all need, and outright theft.
What to do about taxes? Well, you can go the route that California has done, and end up like California. Or, you can do like Colorado did years ago, and pass as well as enforce what was called the taxpayers bill of rights, or TABOR.
Look for an instant back at the very first thing I wrote. It was a question. The list is in fact very long. That being who really likes taxes. Bill Ritter likes taxes. Unions like taxes. People with social agendas like taxes. The list goes on…
Despite the California experience, as well as more than a few other states; there are still people that are completely irresponsible, if not immoral. Below is a piece written by a Colorado Senator that takes a rather candid look at the taxation situation. He addresses Colorado, but in reality, it is the nation. No, I was not attempting to be a poet.
Colorado’s Fiscal Restraint vs. California’s Failed Socialist Experiment
By Senator Ted Harvey
The current and steep recession across the country has not spared Colorado or its budget. With only five months remaining in this fiscal year, the legislature is racing to cut $600 million from our current year’s budget. This is a lot of money, but it pales in comparison to the massive $42 BILLION hole that the state of California is trying to manage.
The Golden State legislature has been under lock down as the Democrat majority tried to twist arms and find one more vote to increase government revenue by $14.2 billion by taxing income, sales, gasoline and cars. Six years ago Mr. Schwarzenegger defeated Governor Gray Davis by calling him “Car-taxula.” Ironically, Governor Arnold’s current budget is asking to double the same tax.
The difference between Colorado’s budget troubles and California’s budget meltdown is not random – Colorado is doing comparatively well because its people have pursued fiscal restraint, while Californians have approved reckless spending packages year after year.
US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said that state legislatures are laboratories of democracy in America. The impact of the current economic crises on national and state budgets could not provide a more vivid opportunity to prove this theory.
While Colorado has chosen fiscally prudent constitutional constraints on growth and spending—through the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) and a 6% growth cap on state spending—California has chosen the path of a socialist experiment in their state. Like the failed communist experiments of the 20th Century, the irresponsible Californian experiment is soon to find its appropriate place atop what President Ronald Reagan called “the ash heap of history.”
The results of California’s experiment are in: the Wall Street Journal explained that California’s “total state expenditures have grown to $145 billion in 2008 from $104 billion in 2003.” As a result, California’s credit rating has fallen beneath Louisiana’s as the worst in the nation, and the state can now boast the nation’s fourth-highest unemployment rate of 9.3%, and the second-highest foreclosure rate.
Businesses in California have been heavily taxed to fund the $145 billion of entitlement programs, and have been heavily regulated to live up to special interest “green” and “pro-union” policies.
While California businesses are fleeing the burdensome tax and regulatory schemes of the Golden State, Colorado is aggressively marketing to these companies. Just last month, Douglas County successfully secured 500 new jobs resulting from the relocation of a division of Charles Schwab from California to Colorado—partially because of our friendlier business climate.
The lesson Colorado’s legislators must learn from this recession is clear: fiscal responsibility works. Even though the legislature collectively fell short of creating a rainy day fund, TABOR and the Arveschoug-Bird 6% spending cap forced Colorado legislators to keep spending low. Had the government enjoyed free rein in ramping up spending – which is a great temptation to many lawmakers tasked with spending other people’s money – Colorado’s budget crisis would be as serious as California’s.
The spending limits of TABOR and the Arveschoug-Bird cap implement a culture of fiscal responsibility where there would otherwise be a temptation to spend every dollar that can be stripped from the taxpayers. Colorado must keep these spending limits in place to avoid falling into the trap of state socialism.
