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TABOR’s real enemy? The BGA
Contributed by: Fred Holden on 7/24/2008

"We have met the enemy, and it is TABOR" (RMN, (DP), page 23A, 6/28/08) is contextually right when "we" is accurately defined as Colorado's BGA, Big Government Armada. What "we" is not, is "We the People"--the citizens, voters and taxpayers the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights so ably protects. The BGA are those who want bigger government, higher taxes and public debt, more power over and control of the people (you know who you are).

The correctly stated enemy, BGA, are those whose "goal is to break the fiscal stranglehold that has gripped this state since passage of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights in 1992 and the school-financing Amendment 23 in 2000." That so-called "stranglehold" is WTP's insurance and protection against relentless, burgeoning government growth.

Funny but both of those constitutional amendments were initiated by and voted into the Constitution by We the People. That's where WTP wanted them and put them.

Funny too, is that the law-making General Assembly initiates some seven hundred or more laws each year (despite a maximum of five allowed for each of the 100 members), and puts into the law books three hundred or more, all of which citizens must obey. Then they get their tightey-whiteys in a wedgey over two lone citizen-initiated constitutional amendments from 16 and eight years back, respectively, because they are INCONVENIENT to the Legislature and worse for the BGA.

"Basically, their plan (BGA) would indefinitely extend Referendum C's five-year 'time-out' from TABOR's Byzantine revenue formulas. That would mean the state could keep all the money our existing taxes raise." That clears that up for the BGA, and why they are so onerous to the rest of us. Even our then-governor supported the "five-year time-out" because it was the only way to sell to the Colorado people this constitutional TABOR diversion with its slim 52-48 percent approval. Now BGA wants this one-time deal to be a candidate for eternity

Another popular gambit is to frame it "for the kids." Notice it's never for our youth, children, students, young people or family members, but "for the kids." Sigh. The carrot side of the stick-in-the-side of this "SAFE (Savings Account for Education) initiative would also modify Amendment 23," for state funding for K-12 (public, government) schools to rise by an amount equal to enrollment increases plus annual inflation plus one percent. What the BGA doesn't want you to remember is the "plus one percent" is gone in 2012.

The BGA is in a panic, hoping the people won't realize it's almost over, the ten and five years of the two amendments. Although the TABOR amendment is forever weakened by Referendum C, Amendment 23's saber-toothed tiger loses its teeth in 2011, reverting back to a minimum required annual increase only at the level of inflation.

Finally, whose state is it, the people's or the BGA? The answer is in the Colorado Constitution, the first two (of 32) clauses of Article II, Colorado's Bill of Rights. The first says, "All political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government, of right, originates from the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole."

The second says, 'The people of this state have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves, as a free, sovereign and independent state; and to alter and abolish their constitution and form of government whenever they may deem it necessary to their safety and happiness, provided, such change is not repugnant to the constitution of the United States.

When you see the SAFE amendment on the November ballot, don't be taken in by the flim-flam, don't be conned by "it's for the children." Know it is another huge money and power grab by the BGA to convince the citizens to help pick their own pockets once again.

We the People have seen the enemy, and it is Colorado's Big Government Armada.

# # #

Fred Holden is public policy specialist, speaker and author of TOTAL Power of ONE in America. He touts America's Freedom Documents and arranged two Constitutional Seminars first quarter 2008, presented by EarlTaylor, Jr., president of the 37-year-old National Center for Constitutional Studies. He is senior fellow-fiscal policy at Colorado's Independence Institute who published his June, 2003 issue paper, "A Decade of TABOR" that analyzed the positive effects of Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights ten years after compared to the ten years before. He and wife Dottie live in Arvada where they raised their three daughters and enjoy their six grandchildren.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Fred Holden

Arvada , CO

Fred Holden has posted 14 stories and 0 comments since joining on 3/27/2007. Fred Holden 's average story rating is 5.
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