I realize that taxes are one of the two things we can’t avoid in this life. However, we can do our best to be diligent and keep them under control. That moment has arrived.
Ballot Proposition CC is an effort by the state Legislature to eliminate the TABOR amendment. For those that may not be familiar, this amendment was passed in 1992 and required that excessive taxes be refunded to the taxpayers. The excessive taxes were the result of a hot real estate market and frequent property reevaluations.
Many states avoid this problem by readjusting the tax millages to exactly offset the overall increase in property values, but Colorado does not have that, so the result was a windfall of unvoted tax revenues that the legislators and city councils were only too happy to spend.
TABOR has been adjusted twice by the voters to remedy problems and is functioning as intended. However, lawmakers simply can’t stand to have all this tax, already collected, slip through their fingers and be refunded to the taxpayers.
With real estate values again growing at 5 to 7% and inflation below 2%, TABOR is very much in need.
Vote No on CC.
Dick Riethmiller
Pagosa Springs
