October 24, 2024 11:45 AM UTC

Truth Test: Congress Isn't Shackled By TABOR, Thank Goodness

• 1 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

9NEWS’ Marshall Zelinger fact-checked a pair of related TV spots in the red-hot CO-08 congressional race last night, with two Republican PACs attacking incumbent Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo for her opposition as a state legislator to Colorado’s so-called Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), the fiscal chokehold measure narrowly passed in 1992 that has bedeviled the state’s fiscal policy ever since–such a debacle that no other state has implemented a similar measure despite many attempts to evangelize conservatives about its virtues in the last 30 years.

But as Zelinger reports, there’s a more basic problem:

There is not a TABOR limitation in Congress, and Congress can make changes to tax policies without asking voters for approval. [Pols emphasis]

Rep. Caraveo’s position on TABOR has absolutely nothing to do with her duties in Congress, because Congress like every other state government in the land has not chosen to shackle its legislative branch to the whim of an anti-tax activist three decades prior. The point is that Caraveo is not running for a job in any way affected by TABOR. Conflating this state issue with Caraveo’s federal responsibilities only serves to misinform voters, which has been a prevalent feature in the race from the beginning.

The one proof point offered in the ad from the Strategic Majority PAC also doesn’t pass muster:

In 2019, Caraveo and every other state House Democrat voted in favor of putting Proposition CC on the November ballot…

Voters said no with almost 54% against Proposition CC.

And even if it had passed, it would not have changed the part of TABOR that requires voter approval for any tax increase.

That part of TABOR was not up for a vote.

And again, TABOR has nothing to do with Congress.

If you ask the average Colorado voter to explain TABOR, they’ll either have no idea how to answer or they’ll remember the TABOR refund check they got last year. A small percentage may be aware of TABOR requirement that new taxes go to a vote, and even fewer will understand the Byzantine rules TABOR instituted for such votes thus ensuring that historically almost 70% of them have failed. But none of that matters, because no initiative or legislation sponsored by Rep. Caraveo would have eliminated TABOR’s requirement to vote on new taxes.

In short, this is an ad campaign that depends on the viewer not fully understanding the subject. It exploits the general lack of understanding of TABOR’s unique effects on Colorado’s fiscal policy to suggest that Caraveo is fiscally irresponsible when the reality is the polar opposite. And either way, the federal government is not bound by TABOR, so the whole discussion is irrelevant.

If you pay close enough attention, you already know this. These ads are aimed at the unfortunate many voters who do not.