Gov. Polis, one of the Democrat Party’s leading TABOR deniers, is accused of violating campaign finance laws in spending millions of taxpayer dollars to promote his candidacy in letters accompanying tax refund checks to Coloradans.
.@JaredPolis is using $3 million in taxpayer dollars for a political stunt.
His taxpayer-funded letter mentions Polis’ name three times and TABOR zero times.
He’ll do anything to buy his election.
We can’t let him. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/5kE7kXL8q4
— Kristi Burton Brown (@ColoradoKbb) August 4, 2022
The complaint filed by the state Republican Party asserts the letter included with TABOR refund checks from Polis is “indistinguishable from a campaign mailer” from his official gubernatorial campaign.
“Jared Polis is blatantly using taxpayer dollars to help himself get re-elected,” Burton Brown said in a statement, noting that Polis and other Democrats now celebrating the program “fought to kill and undermine TABOR, but now they are using its benefits to lie to voters.”
The TABOR-denying governor’s own name was mentioned in the letter three times, but the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the state constitutional amendment that triggers the tax refund opposed by Polis and Democrats, was never even mentioned.
“This is the height of hypocrisy,” Ganahl added. “Just two years ago, Jared Polis tried to kill TABOR. I spent almost a year defending TABOR when I chaired No on Prop CC. As governor, I will be honest and transparent about how my administration spends your money.”
The Polis administration spent millions more in taxpayer dollars to issue the refunds earlier than normal so that votes get the checks, and Polis’s letter taking credit, before the November election.