Parker – Colorado voters will poke a hole in TABOR if they approve Referendums C and D in November, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said Sunday.
The anti-tax crusader said all eyes in the country are on Colorado to see if its voters approve or reject the ballot measures. Referendum C asks voters to let the state keep an estimated $3.6 billion that would otherwise be refunded over five years. Referendum D would authorize about $2.1 billion in loans for transportation projects. The votes to keep and spend the money are required under the Taypayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, a constitutional amendment voters passed in 1992 to limit how much revenue the state can keep each year.
“I hope every state has a measure like TABOR,” Norquist said at the fourth annual meeting of the National Asian Indian Republican Association, held in Parker. “No to new taxes, and we mean it.”
“If voters pass C and D, they will be poking a hole” in TABOR, Norquist said.
He said he expects state Republicans and independents – the majority of voters – to reject C and D, but if the measures pass, he predicted they would hurt voters for the next 50 years.
Norquist said the goal of Republicans in 2006 and 2008 is to elect 60 U.S. senators, eliminating a filibuster option for Democrats. He also advocated abolishing the federal “death tax” and moving to a one-rate income tax system.
Created in 1985, Americans for Tax Reform is a lobbying organization created to minimize taxes.
Colorado gubernatorial candidates Marc Holtzman and U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez also spoke at the event in opposition to C and D.
“We need to defeat C and D for the same reason we decreased taxes on the national level,” Beauprez said. “Government doesn’t grow the economy, people do.”
The theme of the event was “Coming Together to Unite the Party.” Organizer and founder Nosh Tarachand of Denver said the organization’s goal is to focus on Republican support by increasing minority and grassroots affiliations.
Co-founder Hitesh Patel said the group is hoping to help the GOP win more seats in 2006.
He said: “We have to sweep the Democrats from both houses.”
Staff writer Christopher Ortiz can be reached at 303-820-1201 or cortiz@denverpost.com.
