The Taxpayer Bill of Rights has long provoked political tension, and this election year is proving no different, thanks to a larger-than-usual mandatory refund. But once again, politics gets in the way of healthy political discussion.
So let’s first put the policy into context, and then consider what actually matters.
The political games began when some of the state’s most prominent Democrats — notably Gov. Jared Polis — tried to claim credit for the mandatory TABOR refunds. To do this, the refund checks were renamed “Colorado Cashback” and sped up to arrive just before the midterms.
As you might expect, people looked through the list.
Yet in a recent interview, the governor doubled down on the actions, calling it “cynical” to call them political. Of course, Polis has reason to defend the actions: He signed the explanatory letter that will accompany each $750 refund check — a letter that doesn’t even mention the term TABOR and suggests false credit to the governor for the funds.
Calling it below-the-belt politics is easy, but lest you get dizzy with my criticism of the Democrats, consider yourself dutifully reminded that the Republicans play the field with far dirtier tricks.
While many Colorado Republicans claim to be furiously outraged by Colorado Cashback, their outrage miraculously lacked when in 2020 President Donald Trump demanded that his name not only appear on the letter accompanying the federal stimulus checks, but that it appear in a unprecedented move. on the more than 35 million checks even in a presidential election year.
But that’s more than double standards on the part of Colorado Republicans.
The primary reason Republicans want to raise hell for the TABOR refunds is because they hope to divert attention from their extremist list of statewide nominees. From governor to local representatives, they have a lineup that includes suffragettes, rebels, anti-abortionists, religious zealots, and in most cases combinations of all of these and more. Apparently, if your candidates hold positions wildly out of touch with the average Coloradan, diversion is really your only hope.
And here’s another thing Republicans eager to dump on Democrats won’t tell you: Despite the shady attempt at rebranding and the delivery timeline, Democrats actually deserve credit for giving the average Coloradan a bigger TABOR refund , than they would otherwise have received – even in the boom.
While TABOR refunds are typically distributed with higher income earners receiving a larger share of refunds due to paying higher taxes, under this year’s first-of-its-kind Senate Bill 233, TABOR refunds will temporarily offer more support to lower-income Coloradans .
This was accomplished by paying a flat check to each person regardless of taxes paid, meaning the state’s top earners could get as much as $1,000 less than they would before the bill, while the state’s poorest could each see as much as $200 more. It’s a change that almost certainly wouldn’t have happened under a Republican-controlled state.
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Still, the underlying issue remains the same, despite all the political finger-pointing: TABOR doesn’t work for Colorado, it never has, and even if we each get a big, fat refund this year, we should get rid of it as soon as possible.
This message is much harder to swallow as inflated checks are making their way back into taxpayers’ pockets. This will no doubt make it harder to convince voters that the constitutional amendment is one of the worst policies on the books — which probably explains why Democrats tried to take credit for the refunds under an absurd alias in the first place.
But for those with a pulse on their checkbooks, it is no secret that TABOR has put the state’s finances in a dire state. As best demonstrated in a quote from Sen. Bob Rankin — a Republican who sits on the state’s Joint Budget Committee — even those who support the idea of TABOR and limited government recognize that the amendment has gone too far.
The impact of TABOR has left the state ranked at the bottom of the nation for education funding, transportation funding, and other funding for critical infrastructure. This means that while it may seem like Coloradans are winning this year, part of the reason we need so much help in the first place is because we’re not funding critical areas of our government to begin with.
The collective impact of lost revenue means less funding for public sector wages and infrastructure, whereby most of us actually stand to lose far more than we appear to be gaining. So whatever you call it, remember that your $750 check—one that’s no doubt useful to many of us—definitely comes with strings attached.
Trish Zornio is a scientist, speaker and author who has worked at some of the nation’s top universities and hospitals. She is an avid climber and was a 2020 candidate for the US Senate in Colorado.
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