taxpayers bill of rights
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Lawmakers lament special session that yielded no result
Colorado lawmakers, depending on party affiliation, thought the special session that ended Tuesday on a party-line vote in the Republican-controlled Senate Transportation Committee represented a missed opportunity to fix their mistake or a staunch defense of the state Constitution. Republicans opposed the fix and preferred voters decide the tax issue, or at least get specific legal guidance…
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Republicans signal quick end to Colorado special session
Colorado Senate Republicans said Monday morning, at the dawn of special session, they needed the extra three and half months before the next regular session to find a solution to fix a bill they helped mess up in the last regular session. “There’s been a lot of controversy and firestorm about what’s getting ready to…
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Hickenlooper addresses rhetoric over special session, says it should be simple, not partisan
Gov. John Hickenlooper Monday responded to criticism from Republican lawmakers and others about the special session he called last week to address a mistake made in the hospital provider fee law. The measure, signed into law on May 30, is intended to spare hospitals from a greater than half-billion budget cut in 2017-18. The law…
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Staff picks: Here are the top 5 stories of the week in Colorado Politics
The news in Colorado this week included a special session of the General Assembly, a legal fight with President Trump, a tough line on sex offenders and soul-searching by a politician often accused of not having one. Here are the stories that grabbed headlines and have the likelihood to keep yielding news to watch, as…
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Rep. Dan Thurlow, a Republican, wants to tinker with TABOR next session
Rep. Dan Thurlow has a couple of ideas on the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights he wants to present during next year’s session of the Colorado Legislature, the Grand Junction Republican told people at a town hall meeting on state tax issues Thursday. First, Thurlow wants to try again to change how the Legislature calculates how…
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Hickenlooper’s special session could get messy, lawmakers warn
A simple fix may turn out to be pretty complicated. Gov. John Hickenlooper’s plan to fix a problem with the landmark legislation that reclassified the state’s hospital provider fee program may have hit a snag: the two Republican lawmakers who helped marshal the bill through the General Assembly have no intention of helping with the…
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Tax limitation’s author, Douglas Bruce, gets no satisfaction from the El Paso Co. Commission
Sure, it’s a commission on which he once served. In his hometown. Where he first conceived and wrote the taxing and spending limits that, since voter approval in 1992, have been part of the Colorado constitution. Yet, the current crop of commissioners stiff-armed Douglas Bruce on Tuesday, voting 4-1 Tuesday to move ahead with a…
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Small-biz lawsuit: A tax by any other name — still smells like a tax
ColoradoPolitics.com’s Peter Marcus reported in March on a legal development that could have big implications for the ability of the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office to fund its wide-ranging operations – including the state’s elections. At issue is whether the fees the office charges businesses to register and file other paperwork with the state are in fact…