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September 30, 2009 06:10 PM UTC

Caldara Champions Doug Bruce's "Dr. Evil" Initiatives

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Not unexpectedly, the Pueblo Chieftain reports:

Three measures that may reach the 2010 ballot would be devastating to the state’s finances, Sen. Abel Tapia said.

The Pueblo Democrat and long-time member of the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, said Tuesday that three proposed ballot questions pushed by tax-crusader Douglas Bruce would not only hurt the state’s ability to run government, but actually shut it down…

Jon Caldara, president of the Golden-based free-market think tank, Independence Institute, said the measures would undo the mistakes approved by the state’s courts since the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights was passed in 1991.

“COPs were a construct of the Supreme Court, the same thing with the mill levy freeze, which was a blatant violation of the Constitution,” Caldara said. “These would correct those disastrous decisions by the Supreme Court, who apparently have redefined what English words mean. How certificates of participation are not debt is insane; how the mill-levy freeze is not a change to public policy is insane, too. These things wouldn’t be necessary if our Supreme Court used English the way the rest of us do.”

But Tapia said the measures would come on top of $1.5 billion in cuts the state has already made because of the poor economy, and the $500 million it is eyeing next year.

“This could sound good to a lot of people, but it would be devastating to the state,” said Tapia, who’s entering his final session as a state lawmaker because of term limits. “These were hard decisions that we made, but by getting rid of them, it’s really going to shut down government.”

Like we said Sunday, the apparent goal of these initiatives is not to accomplish anything constructive or small-d democratic–for example, one of them would overturn local election results that “de-Bruced” most of the school districts in the state. The virtual elimination of vehicle registration fees will destroy the state’s ability to pay for roads to drive those vehicles on. Slashing already low income taxes when the state already faces a disastrous shortfall…you get the idea. This isn’t about solutions–these ballot initiatives actively seek the destruction of our public institutions out of pure ideological spite. They are breathtakingly irresponsible on a nonpartisan, Fiscal Policy 101 level.

Perhaps the least surprising part of all is Jon “Dildo Art” Caldara jumping in on the comic-book villain side. Of course, given his performance in recent elections (think failed Amendments 38, 46, 47, passage of Referendum C), maybe he should think about whether he’s really a help?

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12 thoughts on “Caldara Champions Doug Bruce’s “Dr. Evil” Initiatives”

        1. Our supreme court is poorly regarded nationally, in part precisely because of the decisions mentioned.  

          One prominent example–Romer v. Evans.  The US Supreme Court affirmed the Colorado Supreme Court, but on very different grounds, without commenting on the reasoning used by the Colorado court–which is one way for a superior court to denigrate the inferior court sub silentio.  

  2. He’s insane.  COP’s have been around much longer than TABOR.  If Bruce wanted to end them in TABOR he could have.  He didn’t.  

    And oh, by the way, why aren’t COP’s debt?  Well it would be because they are subject to TABOR’s limit of single year expenditures.  The maximum a government can say to the holders of the COP’s is that they will pay one year’s payments on the COPs.  Governments can’t guarantee multi-year obligations pursuant to TABOR.  If you don’t believe me, ask the COP holders who ended up with the former Sheridan City Hall because the city decided it couldn’t afford the payments on it and so abandoned the building, leaving the COP holders with their collateral and not much else.

    Caldara, as usual, what you said is just ideological swill.

    Sincerely,

    From the former Vice Chair and Chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party

  4.    This is hardly a surprise.  So now we’ve heard from Larry and Curly.  I imagine that tomorrow the third stooge, John Andrews, will weigh in with his endorsement of the Kicker’s initiatives.

  5. I can just hear the petition takers in the parking lot of my Safeway. Picking on an unpopular (but still abusive) tax is actually smart of them.

    Unfortunately, there are enough dumb people in the state who will sign on and let this POS make it to the ballot.

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