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1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, Adams County Politics, Ballot Issue, Candidates, Climate Change, Colorado politics, Debt/Deficit, Denver area politics, Economy, Education, Elections, Energy, Immigration, Issues, Jobs, Liberal Logic, Meet and Greet, National politics, NSRF Business, NSRF Meetings, ObamaCare, PERA, POTUS, SCOTUS, TABOR, Taxes, Terrorism, Transportation, Volunteering, War on Women 30.06.2020 No Comments
Join us for a lively discussion about today’s local political news at the next NSRF monthly meeting on Saturday, July 11.
We’ll discuss what’s going on with the Covid-19 lockdown orders, which candidates won the primary election, what rulings did the Colorado Supreme Court make, how do those rulings affect you, what’s happening with the Colorado GOP, what ballot initiatives will be on the November ballot, which ones are good or bad for Colorado, and where can I sign, or help get signatures, to get them on the ballot, and lots more topics.
We meet at the Amazing Grace Community Church, 541 E 99th Place in Thornton from 9:00 am – 11:00 am. The meeting will be outside using chairs and their picnic tables so you can social distance. Wear a mask if you want.
Thank you to everyone who joined us on June 13th after 3 months of cancelled meetings due to the Coronavirus lockdown. We hope to see you on Saturday, July 13th!
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Adams County Politics, Climate Change, Colorado politics, Debt/Deficit, Denver area politics, Economy, Education, Energy, Immigration, Issues, Jobs, Legal Issues, Liberal Logic, National politics, NSRF Business, Site News, TABOR, Taxes 11.06.2020 No Comments
Colorado lawmakers have used the elimination of tax breaks in prior recessions to bolster the state’s budget. But there are legal questions and unknowns around whether Gov. Jared Polis will sign off on House Bill 1420, which also gives immigrants access to a tax credit.
PUBLISHED ON JUN 10, 2020 3:00AM MDTJesse Paul@jesseapaul
The Colorado Sun — jesse@coloradosun.com Desk: 720-432-2229
To generate money for the coronavirus-depleted state budget, Democratic state lawmakers in Colorado want to slash or change nine tax breaks to generate $1.6 billion in revenue over the next four years.
House Bill 1420, introduced Monday with just days left in the 2020 lawmaking term, would revoke tax breaks included in the federal stimulus bill known as the CARES Act and the 2017 tax cuts signed by President Donald Trump, as well as slash current state tax credits for certain industries.
Because Colorado is “coupled” with the federal tax code, changes made by Congress automatically apply to the state’s tax system. But lawmakers can pass legislation to “decouple” Colorado and make changes.
The Democratic bill sponsors say the goal is to generate more money for K-12 education after the current coronavirus recession put a $3 billion deficit in the state’s $30 billion budget. In addition, the lawmakers argue that the wealthiest Coloradans who receive the bulk of the current tax breaks should pay a larger share.
But a nonpartisan legislative analysis shows there are some important nuances to the bill.
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1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, Adams County Politics, Ballot Issue, Candidates, Climate Change, Colorado politics, Debt/Deficit, Denver area politics, Economy, Editorial, Education, Elections, Energy, Immigration, Issues, Jobs, Legal Issues, Liberal Logic, Meet and Greet, National politics, NSRF Business, NSRF Meetings, ObamaCare, PC Police, PERA, POTUS, SCOTUS, Site News, TABOR, Taxes, Terrorism, Transportation, Volunteering, War on Women 10.06.2020 No Comments
It’s been too long.
We miss seeing your face in-person and discussing current political events.
After 3 months following Colorado’s “Stay-or-shelter-at-home” policy due to the Coronavirus, it’s time to break free.
On this Saturday, June 13th the North Suburban Republican Forum (NSRF) will be meeting from 9:00am-11:00am.
We won’t be inside the Amazing Grace Community Church but outside it, using their picnic tables to social distance.
We’ll have beverages but not food.
Wear a mask if you want.
Bring a friend or two but join us.
Everyone is welcome.
Let’s get back to what was considered normal.
We’ll have an open forum to discuss what has happened, what’s going on now, & what’s coming.
Please RSVP to info@NorthSuburbanRepublicanForum.com with how many people are coming.
See you this Saturday morning!
Your NSRF Board of Directors
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Adams County Politics, Colorado politics, Debt/Deficit, Denver area politics, Economy, Editorial, Education, Energy, Issues, Jobs, Liberal Logic, NSRF Business, Site News, TABOR, Taxes, Transportation 14.05.2020 No Comments
Constraints will help Colorado governments weather downturn
Shelby Meyer passes by The Irish Rover, one of many restaurants and bars now shuttered along South Broadway in Denver on April 14. The coronavirus has caused many businesses to shut their doors during the coronavirus pandemic. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
By Peg Brady
Guest CommentaryPeg Brady is a retired software analyst and designer. She has served on the TABOR Foundation Board of Directors for more than a decade.
The Denver Broncos and Food Bank of the Rockies hosted a mobile pantry at Empower Field at Mile High on April 27 to help people in need during the pandemic. RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) has provided welcome stability to Coloradans as we all deal with the coronavirus pandemic. This provision of our state constitution allows all governments throughout Colorado an automatic but reasonable annual budget increase. The limits keep governments from growing too fast.
Therefore, when the economy gets into trouble, Colorado state and local governments have a more firm base for their spending and do not need to cut as drastically as other states. Government programs are more sound, strong and sustainable than if they had grown as fast as ambitious politicians often wanted. TABOR helps us to confront the current crisis.
Moreover, just when families and businesses are struggling, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights has led to timely tax relief. The state tax system has evolved so that, when times are good, it over-collects tax revenue. Last year, Colorado over-collected $428 million. TABOR mandates that the state rebates to you excess revenue collected during a fiscal year. So, the 2019 tax rate has been reduced from the usual 4.63% to 4.5% — a 0.13% drop.
You won’t receive a tax refund check; instead, the legislature reduced the income tax rate. Because the rebate is being accomplished through the lower tax rate, you may not recognize how much money you saved. Still, because the state will not incur the cost of issuing and mailing checks, we save that expense as well.
To continue reading this TABOR article, please click (HERE):
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Adams County Politics, Colorado politics, Debt/Deficit, Denver area politics, Economy, Education, Energy, Issues, Jobs, NSRF Business, TABOR, Taxes, Transportation 14.05.2020 No Comments
The reductions under Colorado’s Gallagher Amendment would slash total school district revenue by an estimated $491 million. Fire districts would also be hard hit.
PUBLISHED ON MAY 12, 2020 11:14AM MDTBrian Eason@brianeason
Special to The Colorado Sun
At a moment when state and local governments are already drowning in red ink, Colorado’s constitution is now projected to trigger the second-largest residential property tax cut in modern history.
Under forecasts presented Tuesday, Colorado lawmakers could be asked to cut residential property taxes by nearly 18% in 2021 to comply with a tax-limiting constitutional provision known as the Gallagher Amendment.
For homeowners, it would mean permanent financial relief at a time of rising unemployment and deep economic uncertainty. But if the cut goes through as projected, it would have cascading effects at nearly every level of government in the state, gashing the budgets of property-tax reliant fire districts, county governments and schools.
The reductions would cut total school district revenue by an estimated $491 million. About half of that gap will impact the state budget, which is constitutionally required to backfill certain school funding shortfalls, even as it faces a fiscal catastrophe of its own as sales and income tax revenue plummet. In one fell swoop, it could wipe out all the recent gains the state had made in erasing its unfunded debt to schools, formerly known as the negative factor. At the county level, statewide revenue could drop by $204 million.
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Adams County Politics, Ballot Issue, Climate Change, Colorado politics, Debt/Deficit, Denver area politics, Economy, Editorial, Education, Energy, Issues, Jobs, Liberal Logic, NSRF Business, ObamaCare, Site News, Transportation 07.05.2020 No Comments
May 7, 2020
The COVID-19 virus pandemic has produced a budget catastrophe for Colorado. The General Assembly will probably reconvene May 18 and it will have to make legislation choices based on budget options that may be worse than those of the Great Depression.
Gov. Jared Polis put up a budget in December 2019 of $34.5 billion. That was at the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. Fast forward to May, 2020, and the state is probably down $3 billion, or almost 10 percent, with the economy at a standstill and unemployment growing by the day.
Polis’s biggest ask earlier was for $550 million for transportation and $27.6 million for one of his favorite projects, pre-kindergarten education. Already, the governor has signed 73 bills into law worth about $18 million, including over $9 million for a school finance adjustment and $7.5 million transferred from the general fund to the state information technology fund for various projects (HB20-1260 and 1261).
The March timeout is supposed to end May 18 and the Joint Budget Committee is meeting this week and next to get its arms around the financial decline. There are 346 bills still “in progress” out of 563 total.
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Adams County Politics, Colorado politics, Debt/Deficit, Denver area politics, Economy, Education, Issues, Jobs, Legal Issues, Taxes, Transportation 27.04.2020 No Comments
The Joint Budget Committee will begin reviewing recommendations for spending cuts this week to rewrite the $30 billion state budget
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the $30 billion-plus state budget begins to take shape this week as lawmakers consider massive spending cuts.
How much tax revenue Colorado will lose to the paralyzed economy remains uncertain, but the governor’s budget office is projecting $3 billion in lost revenue for the current fiscal year and the next.
The General Assembly’s budget writers on Monday will start reviewing recommendations from legislative analysts for potential spending cuts across all government agencies. The documents are expected to include scenarios for slashing budgets as much as 20% and force legislators to make hard choices that will impact most Colorado families, according to drafts reviewed by The Colorado Sun.
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Adams County Politics, Climate Change, Colorado politics, Debt/Deficit, Denver area politics, Editorial, Education, Energy, Immigration, Issues, Jobs, Legal Issues, NSRF Business, ObamaCare, PERA, TABOR, Taxes, Transportation 02.04.2020 No Comments
The Colorado General Assembly recessed on March 14 because of COVID-19 and it’s not clear when state lawmakers will return
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state legislature may extend its lawmaking term after taking a pause because of the coronavirus pandemic, breathing new life into Democrats’ policy plans and ending ambiguity swirling for weeks at the Capitol.
The Colorado General Assembly was originally supposed to adjourn on May 6, but after temporarily recessing on March 14 because of the new coronavirus outbreak, Democratic lawmakers wanted to use an emergency rule allowing them to continue past their planned end date.
Republicans challenged the rule — Joint Rule 44(g) — and said legislative sessions must end after 120 consecutive days under a constitutional amendment approved by voters in the 1980s. The rule was unanimously adopted in 2009 in the wake of the H1N1 flu epidemic and is triggered when the governor declares an emergency because of a health crisis.
But in a narrow, 4-3 decision handed down Wednesday afternoon, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the amendment is ambiguous and the legislature therefore can meet after May 6 to make up days it has missed because of the coronavirus.
