By: Representative Steve King
House District 54
It has been said that "a state trying to tax itself into prosperity is
like a person standing in a bucket and trying to lift themselves up by the handle." In our state, the Governor has invited his party into our bucket. As much as the Governor and the democrats would like to think they can lift us up…the truth is that they are putting us at risk of blowing the bottom out of the Colorado economic bucket.
My question for you my fellow tax payer is this… Do you feel the squeeze? The squeeze feels like your collar is to tight. There is no one point that feels bad; it's just uncomfortable all the way around. The "squeeze" is the pressure we feel trying to make ends meet. The
squeeze is on and I think just like me, you feel it.
Have you checked out the price of milk? Bread is going up, Corn is at $5.00 a bushel, Wheat is at a record $11.00 a bushel, Gas is over $3.00 a gallon and moving higher.
It is worrisome that in a newsletter this month from the Colorado fiscal Policy Institute, State Treasurer Cary Kennedy acknowledges: "it's clear that Colorado families are having a more difficult time making ends meet."
We see credit market crunch, credit card debt, mortgage problems. The dollar is at an all time low against the Euro and gold at an all time high.
There is a strong belief that the economic slowdown in Colorado economy is expected to occur more quickly than previously anticipated and as a result there will be no SB 1 or HB 1310 money for the next three years.
I have to say that I am an optimist; I don't like negative attitude or the preaching of gloom and doom. I'm also a realist and functionalist who feels we should brace ourselves when trouble is coming. As a representative I feel the obligation to say the squeeze has started for the average Coloradoan and we had better take notice. We need to start to take on the leadership attitude that this is not business as usual and we are again at the start of an economic shift. We need to
improvise and adapt to the changing conditions, change our mind set. Fore warned is fore armed.
The Western Slope and our "Old Energy Economy" might keep Colorado from taking the full hit of a national recession. This carbon resource might even get Colorado through the mortgage crisis and credit card problems. This will happen because good jobs allow us to pay our mortgage and credit cards as we straighten our debt issues. I venture to say that there will be other states that are not so lucky. This administration has got to understand in the most direct terms possible that we will never compromise our people's safety or our environmental heritage but a strong vibrant economy is a critical part of our environment.
Gov. Bill Ritter and the Democrat-controlled legislature in 2007 passed the property tax increase that is now estimated to cost taxpayers and additional $117.8 million property taxes this year alone. Over the next ten years, that is an additional $3.8 billion dollars from taxpayers, without a vote of the people.
I would submit that in the words of Dirty Harry "a man's got to know his limitations." The same would hold true for this Democrat controlled Administration, House and Senate. With a record 18.4 Billion dollar budget and 1344 new full time employees working for the state in 08. With the largest property tax increase in Colorado history, with what appears to be a pending State and Federal recession in our near future for Colorado families. I would again and again express my opinion that…"Growing government through tax and spend fiscal policy is a failed economic plan and a recipe for fiscal disaster in Colorado."
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when government's purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment
by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." -
Justice Louis Brandeis
