Colorado Republicans Call Out Gov. Jared Polis, Other Dems for Election Year TABOR Refund Ploy

Colorado Republicans are attacking a cash giveaway program created by Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) and other Democrats, calling it an effort to buy votes in an election year.

In a press release Wednesday, Republican Gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl called the move “the height of hypocrisy” after Democrats have tried to do away with TABOR for years.

“Election Year Jared would like us to believe that he is saving Coloradans money. In reality, Jared Polis is trying to use your money to buy votes for his reelection,” she said. “Let’s be clear, this is YOUR $750 dollars, not his to give back.”

The program, which would give $750 checks to Coloradans who file taxes, is being run under the auspices of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). The state website notes that TABOR is a state constitutional amendment established by voters in 1992, which “limits the amount of revenue the State of Colorado can retain and spend.” It adds: 

Specifically, TABOR allows the state to retain and spend an amount based on the prior fiscal year’s actual revenue or limit, whichever was lower, grown by Colorado inflation and population growth and adjusted for any ‘voter-approved revenue changes.’ 

Any surplus revenue has to be refunded through TABOR rebate programs. Until recently, there were only three programs:

• A property tax exemption for veterans with service-linked disabilities
• A temporary reduction in income tax rate from 4.55 percent to 4.50 percent.
• A complex sales tax refund mechanism.

The property tax exemption for qualifying seniors and veterans with service-linked disabilities is for 50 percent of the first $200,000 of their primary home. The following two programs, which are triggered after the property tax exemption, are tied to what the individual contributed in taxes that year, especially the income-tax reduction. The six-tier sales tax refund — which is rooted in a taxpayer’s adjusted gross income — is far more proportionate to what the person paid in than the equal rebates under the latest “Colorado Cashback” program passed by Democrats in the state legislature and signed into law by Polis in May. It doles out $750 checks to Coloradans regardless of income, while joint tax filers will receive $1,500 checks.

Colorado Politics reported that “most of the refund would have gone back to taxpayers through the sales tax mechanism, which is income-based,” had the new program not been enacted.  Polis says taxpayers will still see “some money” through the sales tax refund next year.

On Friday, Breitbart News spoke with the chairman of the TABOR Committee and former State Rep. Penn Pfiffner (R-23) about the newest program and the radical collectivist nature of equal disbursements.

“The decision to send back a flat amount is a way of redistributing income and wealth,” Pfiffner said, who in the 1980s served as a regional coordinator in the effort to bring TABOR to fruition. “Those people who didn’t even have a $750 tax liability to the state will get $750 back. Those people who put in a whole lot more will still get only $750, so the proportionality goes out. It redistributes income, and that matches very much what the progressives would say they would want.” 

Accompanying the rebate checks is a letter from Polis, in which he dubs the disbursement the “‘Colorado Cashback’ refund check” — which Axios Denver called “gaslighting” — and fails to mention TABOR, which he pushed voters to radically scale back in 2019 through a ballot initiative called Proposition CC. The proposition would have done away with overcollection rebates and allowed the government to retain all surplus revenue collected, which would have to be used for education and transportation projects.

In an article he authored for the Denver Post ahead of the vote, Polis wrote in part:

Now we have a new chance, without raising taxes, to better fund our roads: Proposition CC. I support Proposition CC so that our state can start fixing things. Proposition CC requires Colorado to spend the tax revenue it already collects on education and transportation, without raising taxes.

Many years ago Colorado adopted an arbitrary formula that limits our ability to make investments in things like education and transportation when economic times are good. A lot has changed in thirty-plus years and this fixed formula is now obsolete and doesn’t let us keep up with the needs of our fast-growing state.

Here you go @jaredpolis, in case you don't remember trying to kill TABOR? I remember that well because I led the fight to defend TABOR (No on Prop CC). https://t.co/FhrVW5JCEM

— Heidi Ganahl for CO Gov (@heidiganahl) August 3, 2022

While Polis dubbed the program “obsolete,” TABOR is designed to slow the growth of the state government at the discretion of Coloradans, who decide on tax increases at the ballot box. The proposition failed to pass, with 54 percent of constituents voting no. Coloradans are now calling out Polis’s and the Democrats’ hypocrisy after years of attempts to do away with TABOR.

Colorado Politics reported that on Wednesday, Michael Fields of Advance Colorado stated: 

Don’t be fooled when your TABOR refund check hits your mailbox later this month. Remember liberal legislators tried to take them away in 2019. Governor Polis and Democratic lawmakers want you to think it’s some kind of gift from them. But really, this is just an election year gimmick to try to get your vote.

#DontBeFooled#ItsYourMoneyNotTheirs#ThankGodForTABOR#VoteOnTaxesAndFees#FeesAreTaxes#TABOR#FollowTheMoney#FollowTheLaw https://t.co/Pjh9deUsxk

— Colorado's TABOR Committee & TABOR Foundation (@colorado_tabor) August 4, 2022

Pfiffner echoed a similar sentiment on Friday.