In the past week there has been a growing chorus of liberal voices cheerleading increasing “revenue” rather than cutting spending. As WhoSaidYouSaid reminds us, revenue is just a code word for taxes.
Democrats feel like they’ve found their magical potion to convince voters to pay higher taxes by talking about tax increases without mentioning the word, but unfortunately whoever polled that word is no Frank Luntz.
Democrats want to raise taxes because that’s the easy way out in solving a budget shortfall. The harder decisions, which Colorado voters are expecting, come from cutting budgets. The funny part is most liberals refuse to say “tax increase.” Which is why we owe a debt of gratitude to Sen. Rollie Heath (D-Boulder) who plans to propose a massive tax increase in the Legislature today (Monday).
Kudos to Sen. Heath for his candor. He is just dead wrong. In an economy struggling to stay afloat and keep whatever positive momentum it’s been able to muster, tax increases would be like putting a speed bump in a retirement home hallway. All it’s going to do is create a massive economic pile up and it ain’t going to be pretty.
This will make explaining the differences to voters SO much easier door-to-door. Do you want 1.6 Billion in higher taxes or not? I love it when Dems make it this easy!
How many state employees have been laid off
If the cuts can be framed as dire enough, the people can be convinced to raise taxes. Aside from that, the budget situation is bad enough that it’ll really take both raised taxes and cut spending to deal with it responsibly.
How can Heath propose a tax increase? It still needs to go to the voters. Luckily, as long as it’s labeled as a tax increase, Coloradans will reject it.
It could be that Heath is planning to make this bill a concurrent resolution to be presented to the voters, but that still wouldn’t help him out with this cycle. And besides that, he’d need a 2/3 majority to pass it–and there’s no way he has the votes for that.
If it’s a bill it would be completely unconstitutional. Unfortunately, it might have the votes to pass the Senate. Thank voters for a Republican majority in the House to stand in defense of our wallets.