Let’s require a supermajority vote to impose fees (aka taxes)

“Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman”
—The Beatles’ “Taxman”

During the governor’s State of the State Address this year, Gov. Jared Polis referenced the Simon and Garfunkel song “50 Ways to Leave a Lover” and called on legislators to find 50 ways to save the taxpayers money. The way Polis and his Democrat colleagues in the House and Senate have acted over the last three years, the most accurate song to describe their behavior is The Beatles’ “Taxman.”

At the end of the 2021 legislative session, the creation of six new enterprises resulted in an additional $699 million in new fees being imposed on individuals and businesses. Add this with all other fees created in the last three years and the pending financial burden on Coloradans will be $2.2 billion annually.

In 1992, Coloradans passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, commonly known as the TABOR Amendment. It prohibits tax increases without a majority vote, from Coloradans, consenting to an increased tax.

And yet, in the 2021 legislative session, Democratic lawmakers passed Senate Bill 21-260, the “Sustainability of the Transportation System.” This bill skirted around TABOR by referring to the taxes it imposed as “fees.” These fees were placed on many things — food delivery, ridesharing services and even on gas. Since raising gas taxes would have required asking voters for their consent, Democrats avoided the hassle — and your legal rights — by passing legislation to levy a gas fee, on top of the current gas tax.

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