When liberal activists try to raise our taxes in 2020 — and it will happen — they cannot escape using that pesky proper title in ballot measures they have so desperately tried to shed.
The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, sayeth the Colorado Supreme Court, is a clear title with real meaning, and not just some random catch phrase that is unclear or misleading in purpose.
That means if Carol Hedges and her merry band of taxpayer pickpockets at the Colorado Fiscal Institute put forth ballot measures to repeal TABOR in whole or in part, or kill the state’s flat income tax and replace it with a graduated income tax, they can’t pull a fast one on the public using a secret code.
The tax fairies, who have so far come up with 35 possible ballot measures, wanted to sneak their intentions past voters in the title:
“Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning the repeal of Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution.”
Instead, voters will get to see what they are actually voting on:
“An amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the repeal of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado constitution.”
Big. Difference.
As the majority of the state Supreme Court wrote in their 5-2 decision:
“ … (W)e cannot discern how voters could be confused by this title or how the effect of a yes/for or no/against vote would be unclear. “We perceive no grounds on which to argue that the title would jeopardize the impartiality of the designation to be placed before the voters or would mislead voters into supporting or opposing the initiative because of the words that the Title Board employed.”