“The check is in the mail” used to be the go-to excuse for those hoping to keep their debtors at bay. And, if Gov. Hickenlooper has his way, Colorado taxpayers will be hearing that line a lot more often when they look for their Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refund checks.

Just this week, Gov. Hickenlooper circulated a letter asking legislators to “overhaul” the state’s spending priorities. Hickenlooper laid out his solution to solving what he’s calling “Colorado’s fiscal thicket” pushing for a proposal which would change the way TABOR refunds are issued, eliminating the possibility of a refund for 2018 and possibly even many years into the future.

He wants to take hospital taxes and move them into a specially created “enterprise fund,” exempt from the revenue limits in TABOR, so he can spend them however he sees fit.

But if Gov. Hickenlooper wants to raise taxes, then he needs to call it like it is.

Of course, Gov. Hickenlooper and his cadre of government accountants will tell you that his plan “doesn’t raise a dime of taxes.” But if, Coloradans are paying the same, and getting less back at the end of the year, what else can you call it but a tax increase?

This year, Colorado is set to issue its first TABOR refund in nearly 15 years. In 2018, the first year in which Hickenlooper’s plan would eliminate TABOR refunds, economists estimated that the average Colorado taxpayer would receive a check for between $50 and $682 for single filers or, as a joint filer, between $87 and $836.

Coloradans would receive this as a check at the end of the year to refund them for the tax revenue that the government collected but wasn’t authorized to spend. But in 2018, Hickenlooper’s plan would take away every single one of those refunds and spend it all away on new big-government programs.

If that doesn’t sound like a tax increase, then I don’t know what does.

At the end of the day, these special budgetary carve-outs and hidden back-door gimmicks are exactly the kind of tax-policy tomfoolery the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights was created to prevent.

The idea of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights is simple. Number one, it ensures that government doesn’t grow faster than the population and inflation. And number two, ensures that if the legislature is going to enact a tax increase, it first receives approval by a vote of the people.

It was supposed to make tax policy simple. No more gimmicks. No more backdoors. No taxes-that-aren’t-taxes or any of the government’s usual ways of tricking people into paying more, without knowing it.

The idea was to sum all the sources of revenue in the government and divide it by the number of people in the state. If government spending grew faster than prices or people did, then the taxpayers would be entitled to the difference. It puts a healthy restraint on the size of government and ensures government, like millions of Colorado families, is forced to set priorities and live within its means.

Aside from the restraint on size of government, perhaps the most popular feature of TABOR is that it requires a firm up-or-down vote by the people on every proposed tax increase. Of course, Gov. Hickenlooper doesn’t want to take this tax increase plan for a vote because, if history is any measure, it will be defeated — by massive numbers.

Proposition 103 came up for a vote in 2011. Amendment 66 followed in 2013. Both were crushed by almost 2 to 1 margins. I suspect Hickenlooper’s latest plan would fare the same.

Coloradans have spoken loud and clear that they don’t want a tax increase — no matter how it is dressed up.

Hickenlooper’s plan would keep and spend more tax revenue — $730 million more to be exact. Yet, rather than seeking the ordinarily required vote of the people, he does away with it all, by marking certain taxes, funds and fees “exempt” from TABOR.

It’s a dangerous precedent and Colorado taxpayers should take notice.

No longer would lawmakers be required to seek the approval of the people for tax increases. Anytime Denver lawmakers want to spend more than they’re entitled to, all they’d need to do is mark some tax or fee “exempt,” then designate it to a special fund, and watch millions of newly-minted TABOR-exempt funds roll in.

It’s at this very moment — the moment we start making certain revenue streams exempt or granting special status to certain fees that TABOR becomes meaningless. It sets a precedent that tells governors now, and all the governors to come, that TABOR’s restrictions don’t really mean that much. It tells governors that anytime they feel TABOR is holding them back from what they’d really like to spend, that they can just circumvent it with a special fund or exemption.

Using these gimmicks to circumvent TABOR is illegal and goes against the will of Coloradans who voted for the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and continue to support the protections it provides.

Hickenlooper will tell you his plan doesn’t raise taxes, but Coloradans shouldn’t be deceived. His plan is a dangerous plan that would shred the core of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and take away the refunds taxpayers deserve.

Hickenlooper can tell you all he wants that his plan won’t raise taxes, but wise Coloradans should know, he’s only trying to deceive you.

Dustin Zvonek is the Colorado state director of Americans for Prosperity