A conservative policy group says Colorado is one generation away from a California-type fiscal crisis, thanks to what it calls excessive taxation, uncontrollable spending and an environment hostile to job growth.
Americans for Prosperity Colorado, which issued the 71-page report Monday, laid almost all the blame on Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and the Democratic-controlled legislature.
“Over the last six years, there has been a move to find more of a government solution to every problem,” said Jeff Crank, director of Americans for Prosperity Colorado.
A Ritter spokesman dismissed the report as “diatribe.”
The report, “Colorado in Transition: Killing the Golden Goose,” calls for the repeal or reduction of income, property and business-personal property taxes, to be replaced by a “consumption” tax on spending.
The report reads like a conservative manifesto: the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which controls taxation and spending, is good; labor unions are bad; Amendment 23, the voter-approved measure that mandates more funding for education, should be repealed.
The report also addresses tort reform, health insurance mandates, perceived judicial activism, fees and taxes.
“Unfortunately for Mr. Crank and his partisan organization, the facts do not line up behind this diatribe,” said George Merritt, a Ritter spokesman.
“Colorado is certainly feeling the historic national recession, but thanks to Gov. Ritter’s leadership, we have an unemployment rate three points below the national average and we’ve been ranked by national organizations as one of the best states for doing business,” Merritt said.
Rich Jones, a director at the liberal Bell Policy Center, called the report “misleading.” He said it is not about “Colorado’s economic future,” as it claims, but an ideological report.
Crank said the report was paid for by its members, whom he described as “grassroots people” and those “who believe in free markets.”
The report credits TABOR as the reason Colorado is not in worse shape in this recession, and it blasts Democrats for attempting to circumvent it with fee increases and such that have not gone to the voters.
“On taxes and spending, we’ve seen over the last couple of years an assault by people in both political parties, and I’m not specifically talking about legislators or those who are holding public office,” Crank said, adding that the business community is guilty, too, of trying to undermine TABOR.
The report contains several errors, however.
For example, in one part it says most motorists will pay $40 to $50 extra a year to register their vehicles under a bill Democrats approved in 2009. The fee increase is limited to three years, and the average Coloradan will pay $32 in the first year and $41 extra in the third and final year.
The report also claims Democrats have “chosen to ignore” shortfalls in the state pension program.
But state Treasurer Cary Kennedy for months has focused on the problem, and Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, has been working for six months with Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, on a solution.
Under questioning, Crank said his group has not taken a position on three proposed ballot measures that would slash at least $1 billion annually in state taxes, roll back property taxes statewide and dramatically limit government’s ability to construct new buildings.
“Our goal isn’t to strangle government,” Crank said. “It’s to make government as lean and as strong as possible in the areas that it needs to perform, like the area of transportation infrastructure.”
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327 or lbartels@denverpost.com
