Colorado Springs, the home of the state’s top anti-tax crusaders, has emerged as a battleground for divided Republican elected leaders.
Last week, the Colorado Springs City Council voted 7-1 to endorse Referendums C and D in a slap at the region’s delegation of Republican lawmakers, who unanimously opposed the budget-reform deal that goes to the state’s voters in November.
And on Tuesday, Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera, a Republican, will lead a rally in support of the measures, which will ask voters to let state government keep about $3.6 billion that would otherwise be refunded under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Last spring, Republican state lawmakers from El Paso County opposed the plan as a tax increase. Last week, Colorado Springs City Council members called it a tool to boost the local economy.
The disagreement has blossomed into a war of words between Republicans.
“I have a lot of respect for our state legislators,” Rivera said. “The representatives of El Paso County do an excellent job, but in this case we are more in touch with the needs of our community.”
State Sen. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, said: “I feel like they are dead wrong. We know the state budget better than they do and they should respect our understanding of it.”
Rivera touted the council’s support for the ballot measures as a way to improve the local economy.
Referendum C would let the state keep revenues that exceed the spending limits imposed by TABOR for the next five years – estimated at $3.6 billion. Referendum D outlines key projects that would get funding. It would also authorize the state to borrow money to pay for extra projects.
“Economic development is our No. 1 focus,” said Rivera, ticking off a list of how money from the referendums would help Colorado Springs:
Highway-intersection improvements to help deal with population growth at the Fort Carson military base.
Graduate-education and training programs at local universities and community colleges to churn out workers prepared for high-tech jobs.
Better access roads to Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak and Manitou Springs to help boost tourism.
But Lamborn said passing Referendums C and D would hurt the economy by diverting money from consumers.
“It will be a drag on the economy to take $4 billion out of taxpayers’ pockets and give it to the government,” Lamborn said.
The Colorado Springs City Council, which has eight Republicans and one independent, was under intense pressure from the business community – a key Republican constituency.
Mike Kazmierski, interim director of the Colorado Springs Economic Development Council, said backers of the referendums spent six weeks persuading City Council members to endorse the proposals.
The backers also appealed to the council members’ patriotism by claiming that deeper cuts in spending for health care programs would hurt military veterans in the region.
The business community’s push also blunted the rhetoric of Douglas Bruce, the author of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, who’s an El Paso County commissioner.
On his website, Bruce contends that Referendum C is the “largest tax increase in state history.” Bruce did not return calls seeking comment about the council vote.
Rivera dismissed Bruce’s claim that the proposal is a tax increase.
“He thinks that since he wrote the TABOR amendment, he gets to dictate what voters get to vote on,” Rivera said.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
