VOTE NO ON 2A (and keep your money)

We give government the ability to charge us money with tax laws. We have the right and the ability to change these laws should we so decide. At the Colorado State level, we have put the Tax Payers Bill of Rights in place, and it is the law of our State.

That law intentionally stops the tax-spenders (govt) from 1. Raising the tax rate without the tax-payers permission (vote) and 2. gives us back some of what we paid as a refund (credit) according to a predetermined formula.

This really bugs the tax-spenders. They want to start new programs and get us to pay for them. They want to grow their government empires. They also often want more money for themselves, as is evidenced by the recent increase in salary voted for by our City Council members. And, I might add, by the Colorado Legislature when they killed Rep. Wes McKinley's bill to cut all state salaries by 7%.

In short, the tax-spenders want to get rid of our Tax-payers Bill of Rights. They always have wanted to get rid of it, and they always will. It limits them in ways they don't like.

The latest attempt (from Councilwoman Kneich's newsletter):
On Monday, August 20^th City Council PASSED Bill 12-0566, an Ordinance placing the following measure 2A on the November 6 ballot.  The measure will read: Without increasing any tax rate or adopting any new tax, and in order to pay for improvements to police, fire, streets, Denver Public Library, parks, after-school and summer programs for children and such services as specified in City Council Bill 12-566 and published on the city’s web-site, shall the City and County of Denver be authorized to collect, retain and spend all tax revenue derived from the city’s existing gross tax rates to the extent those revenues exceed the constitutional limitation on tax revenue, also known as TABOR, beginning in 2013, provided that in no event shall the city increase the maximum lawful property tax rate without prior voter approval as required by Section 20(4)(a) of Article X of the Colorado Constitution, and requiring specific annual reporting requirements by the Manager of Finance to the mayor, the city auditor and the city council on the disposition of these funds?

So, as usual, they tell us that this does NOT raise our taxes, which is technically true in that it does not change the tax RATE, BUT TAKING AWAY OUR CREDIT HAS THE SAME NET EFFECT - WE PAY MORE.

Hey tax-spenders, listen up. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY MORE. We have lost or are losing our jobs, our houses, our safety-net programs. Now is not the time to be trying to get blood out of our turnips.

We understand that you have a "dream", to grow Denver into a World-Class City. We are tired of your dreams and suggest that you get back down to reality. There are only 600,000 of us in Denver. We already gave you back 5 YEARS worth of our credits (which you said would be around $3 billion but turned out to be more like $7 billion, State-wide Ref. C), and that seemed to evaporate quickly.

So, dear tax-spender, suck it up. Cut your own salaries before you ask us for more. WE DON'T HAVE MORE.

VOTE NO ON 2A.

P.S. Please quit trying to taint the argument by calling it De-Brucing. The old pissant Doug Bruce has come and gone. Our Taxpayers Bill of Rights remains, and we want to keep it that way.