When the state’s leading corporately-funded Republican and the state’s leading establishment Democrats get together to persuade you to let them keep more of your money -- working Coloradans better tighten the grip on their wallets.
That is the notion that caused me to give referendum questions C & D another look. I’ve decided that for progressives, these proposals are just not good enough. We should reject them and tell the governor and legislature to try again and come up with a more equitable and honest plan.
My purpose in this commentary is not to delve into the line-by-line financial specifics on why you should vote against C & D, but rather to present a bigger picture political argument for why courageous progressives and independent thinkers should oppose these proposals.
The bottom-line is that C & D are not real solutions to the state government’s revenue problems. They are fig leaves meant to perpetuate the status quo; to maintain an unfair and corrupt political process and further the interests of elitist government.
The tip-off about what C & D actually do can be ascertained by following the money ... the contributions from those who support the referendum campaign by putting their money where they hope their profits will come from.
(And I want to say here that I have nothing against profit derived from the market place. I do have a problem with profit that comes from manipulation and exploitation of the taxpayers through government subsidies to private enterprise.)
The campaign for C & D is being funded mostly by those who will benefit -- the bond dealers that will earn millions in commissions from the massive borrowing authorized by D; the construction corporations that will win huge contracts from the state government to build more roads; the residential house developers and business property speculators that will make millions from the suburban sprawl that the roads lead to; the giant HMOs and insurance companies that derive tremendous profit from taxpayer funded health programs; etc.
The organized opposition to C & D are also due for some righteous indignation from Colorado voters. To paraphrase a local conservative talk show host, we should expect to know where the funders of the anti-C & D campaign sit, if we are to give any credibility to where they stand. Keeping secret the contributors to the Independence Institute’s anti-C & D effort is dishonest. When making these kinds of dollars and cents decisions, voters should be able to discern all the potential conflicts of interest from proponents and opponents -- we are smart enough to figure out what is really going on.
What offends my sensibilities is that both Democrats and Republicans wave the banner of ‘education’ to persuade, cajole, rationalize and justify just about anything and everything that they want. But you know something? Sometimes the politicians really are trying to fool you -- and it isn’t about education. Sometimes it is just about raising and spending more of your money.
In this case, passage of C, in my opinion, allows the state government to avoid tackling tough decisions about what is best for our children’s education.
The increased revenue side of C will give the state’s ‘educrats’ the money to keep state tax dollars flowing to the corporate profiteers selling the federally-mandated CSAP tests to the public schools. This is a sinkhole for tens of millions of dollars every year -- millions that are not spent to educate our children, but to line the pockets of ‘testing materials’ vendors. Voter approval of C will mean that the CSAP travesty will go on and on and the politicians can avoid telling Washington to take ‘No Child Left Behind’ and stick it in their ear.
Conversely, if the governor and the legislature are forced to make honest decisions about what is best for our education system, then perhaps we will see some substantive changes instituted that will lead to better policies -- like devolving power back to the local school districts and getting the legislature out of micro-managing curriculum. Education is an area where C & D may very well not improve the current situation of our public schools, but will only cover-up the necessity for real reform.
Education is just the number one example of where the advocates for C & D claim that its approval is vital. They also make it sound as if C & D will solve every budgetary ill facing the state government. But taxpayers should certainly know better ... there cannot ever be enough money to take care of all the education problems, all the healthcare problems, all the transportation problems, all the employment problems, all the environmental problems, and all the social services problems facing the state government.
But as a fiscally responsible progressive, I think that perhaps the primary reason I will vote against C & D is because these proposals do nothing to improve the manner in which tax dollars are collected and expended by Colorado government. I believe that at some point we must have a fairer system of taxation in this state, and a government that is more responsive to the will and needs of the vast majority of Colorado citizens. The defeat of these two referendum plans may finally create an environment where these needed reforms will be seriously addressed.
The point is that we need honesty from our politicians and state leaders. If TABOR is inherently flawed, then let its opponents propose repealing it and replacing it with straightforward constitutional protections for Colorado taxpayers. It should, at a preeminent level, be simple: if the government needs more money, the governor and the legislature should come directly to the people, make their case and ask for a tax increase. If the government is collecting too much money, then there should be a vote to lower taxes. And we should do away with this clunky and inefficient TABOR ‘refund’ system, too.
Progressives and independents should have the courage to say no to these referred proposals and tell the governor and state legislature to go back to the negotiating table and devise an honest, straightforward way to adequately collect taxes and fund the state government.
I would propose a completely new beginning for the state government’s revenue and spending process. Let’s strip out of our constitution every provision that taxes here and there, levies fees there and here, grants loopholes this place and that, and has created pages and pages of revenue and appropriations laws.
Then let’s propose a simple, understandable, fair and equitable ‘Working Taxpayers Bill of Rights’. It should include provisions like these: a progressive state income tax; all tax hikes and cuts and/or multi-year indebtedness must be approved by the voters; repeal of all taxation on food and medicine in the state of Colorado; no tax exemptions for ‘for profit’ businesses operated by religious institutions; an end to special tax exemptions/eminent domain/subsidies for businesses and corporations doing business or wanting to do business in Colorado.
This is the kind of change we need in Colorado. These are the kind of reforms that will never happen if C & D are passed and we continue with government as usual.
Finally, my message to progressive and liberals in particular is that we should stop becoming reactionary to the schemes of establishment politicians of both parties.
We need to do some serious reevaluation of our basic instinctual belief that government tends to be on our side. The current corrupt system of campaign finance has made almost all elected officials beholden to corporate interests and other very narrow special interests. Whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge, the influence on them from corporate political action committees has tilted the administration of government -- from the national level down to the local level -- towards protection of business and away from benefiting regular, working class Americans.
Passage of referendum questions C & D will not lead to need reform or to a more equitable and sustaining revenue and appropriation process for Colorado. Their approval will unfortunately just give consent to the beneficiaries of our corporatized campaign contributions system -- the governor and legislators -- to continue politics as usual.
We can do better ... and that is what we should expect and demand from our political representatives.
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