Campaign of lies
Title: “The Truth”
Sponsor: Vote Yes on C & D
Type: Television ad
The message: Opponents of Referendum C are lying about whether the ballot measure will raise tax rates and about how much money the state would keep if it passes.
Facts: Referendum C does not increase tax rates.
The state’s individual income tax rate is and will remain 4.63 percent if voters approve Referendum C on Nov. 1.
Beginning in 2011, Referendum C would lower income tax rates to 4.5 percent when the economy is strong.
Referendum C does allow the state to keep more taxpayer money.
That’s because the ballot measure suspends the spending limits imposed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), which was added to the state constitution in 1992.
Based on current estimates, the state would keep and spend an extra $3.7 billion over five years if Referendum C passes. The amount of money that most taxpayers would give up if Referendum C passes is $491, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Council.
Opponents of Referendum C, however, calculate that the average family of four would give up $3,200 in tax refunds.
To get that number, they divide $3.1 billion – another projection of the amount of money the state would keep if C passes – by the number of families.
But that approach assumes each taxpayer qualifies for every possible refund. The legislature has devised 12 special-interest tax breaks for things such as child care and business and capital-gains exemptions. No taxpayer qualifies for every refund.
– Staff writer Mark P. Couch
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Save the children
Title: “Education”
Sponsor: Vote Yes on C & D
Type: Television ad
The message: Three years of recession have caused deep cuts to education that have hit kids hard. Substandard buildings, crowded classrooms and cuts to programs including preschool, kindergarten and Read to Achieve are the result. “ Our kids and teachers can’t take any more big hits. Vote Yes on C&D.”
Fact: Read to Achieve, which provides grants to help 2nd- and 3rd-graders who read below their grade level, was cut
$11.9 million between fiscal year 2004-05 and 2005-06. Between 2003-04 and 2004-05, 2,000 kids were cut from the state’s preschool program. But for 2005-06, money was restored to fund the 2,000 kids and add 1,310 more. In 2001-02, the state
cut funding for unsatisfactory schools to send their half-day kindergartners to full-day programs. That funding was restored for
2005-06.
The state owes $190 million from a lawsuit requiring it to pay for the maintenance and replacement of unsafe school buildings. The state has not been able to make all of those payments. Referendum D would allow the state to pay off the $147 million it owes.
Overall, K-12 funding increased between 2001 and 2004 because of Amendment 23, which requires the state to increase funding by student growth and inflation plus 1 percent every year.
Between 2001-02 and 2003-04, the total general fund money to the Education Department increased $149 million, from $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion.
– Staff writer Chris Frates
