Backdoor Bill Ritter Strikes Again!
“FASTER” is a disaster.
Everyone knows the first couple of paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, you know, the good stuff about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Fewer people read on to the list of grievances against King George. (BTW if you’d like to listen to the whole Declaration do it here.) One of the reasons for separation from England listed was “For imposing taxes on us without our consent.”
Here in Colorado, in spirit and in law, “consent” means a vote of the people. Yet our governor again today is using the backdoor to raise taxes without our consent. By signing the 67 page Senate Bill 108 into law, Backdoor Bill is raising car taxes by $250 million a year – without a vote of the people. His excuse is that he calls it a “fee,” not a “tax,” and of course your wallet will be able to tell the difference. The press keeps calling this a $41 per car “fee” increase, but do the simple math: The $250 million a year will be paid by the 5 million Coloradans in one way or another (businesses don’t pay taxes, people do). That’s $50 per man woman and child in the state per year, forever, and all without a vote.
To add insult to injury this bill has a “safety clause” slapped on the end. This prevents the citizens, through the petition process, from putting this bill on the fall ballot for all taxpayers to consider. Why doesn’t he respect citizens enough to ASK FIRST? Who knows, if it is as good as he says, wouldn’t it pass?
Governor Ritter seems to have developed a nasty habit of supporting backdoor increases in government:
Gov, my momma always said gentleman ask first.
Hey Jon:
Have not seen any media coverage on this. So not sure if you are aware of yet another tax increase to small business owners effective immediately with the recent passing of Senate Bill 09-212.
Just a quick info on this “fee change”. Businesses that collect sales taxes on a monthly basis have what is called a vendor fee. This fee is a percentage of sales tax collected, that businesses get to keep for collecting the tax.
Colorado just changed that vendor fee from 3.33% to 1.35%. Sure the Obama liberals will sell this like they did the election with the tax increase on the rich from 36 to 39 as just a 1.98% change. But math says otherwise.
Example – business collects $2,070 of sales tax – instead of keeping $68, now businesses get to keep $27.
Good old Tax Ritter and the liberals at it again!
Thanks Jon!
BJ
16 Mar 2009 at 10:17 pm
[...] if the Car Tax, Property Tax, and many other taxes weren’t enough, Bill Ritter wants more of your hard-earned cash. What’s this Levy Genius’ [...]
19 Aug 2009 at 10:27 am