Colorado Democrats couldn’t wait until National School Choice Week to kill the latest education tax credit proposal. On Wednesday, January 22, a 3-2 party-line committee vote marked the end for Senate Bill 33 — a proposal to create a limited tax credit for private school tuition or home school expenses. Tax credits provide a stronger financial incentive by removing the specified amount paid on qualifying expenses from a person’s tax liability. …Read the rest of my article at Watchdog Wire Colorado…. … [Read more...]
Search Results for: democrats
Democrats’ HB 1181 Union Buy-Off: Pushing the State Capitol Panic Button
Update, 5/8: Colorado LOSES has a great idea about what to do with HB 1181. If Republicans can't kill it, the least they should do is offer an amendment to ensure transparency of state employee union finances. In the waning days of the legislative session, is anyone up to the challenge? (H/T Complete Colorado) The Denver Post's Tim Hoover reports today:Days before the legislature adjourns, some Democrats are pushing a proposal that would guarantee unions could still collect dues from state employees — even if the next governor is not union-friendly. The effort comes in the form of an amendment to House Bill 1181, a mostly technical bill dealing with policies of the Department of Personnel and Administration. The bill's sponsor, Sen. … [Read more...]
Colorado Democrats Dig Themselves Deeper on Dirty Dozen Tax Hikes
At this point, ramming through the Dirty Dozen tax hikes has Colorado Democrats in such political hot water, why not just go ahead and swim in it? That must be the reasoning behind the effort to make things even worse by changing the temporary tax hikes into permanent tax hikes. It used to be about half the bills would eventually reduce the respective tax rates to their current level. Not anymore:Republicans believe that Democrats are using the current budget crisis as an excuse to permanently raise taxes on Colorado families and businesses. “If the tax increases are only meant to help the state fill the budget gap, as Democrats claim, then why aren’t we making them all temporary?” asked Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield. Then … [Read more...]
Colorado Democrats Accidentally Turn Tax Hike Into Tax Cut … “D’Oh!”
That's got to be how the Democratic trio of Governor Bill Ritter, Speaker Terrance Carroll, and House Finance Committee Chairman Joel Judd have to be feeling after knowing they accidentally turned one of their tax hike bills into a tax cut and therefore had to kill it. The majority party under the Golden Dome couldn't let a pesky problem like that make it into the light of day. You can't make this stuff up, folks. Yet somehow it escaped even the watchful eye of the Denver Post's "The Spot" blog. Oh, well.... … [Read more...]
Vulnerable Colo. House Democrats Push Through “Dirty Dozen” Tax Hikes
Update, 2/2: Americans for Tax Reform links back here. They have taken a real interest in "educating all those voting in the districts represented by the aforementioned lawmakers as to how they voted on this tax package during the 2010 campaign season." ATR's help is much appreciated. Saturday I highlighted the Democratic House seats in the Colorado state legislature most vulnerable in the upcoming election. Today the House voted (with a 37-27-1 Democratic majority) to approve eight of the "dirty dozen" tax hike bills on: Direct mail (1189); Candy and soft drinks (1191); Software downloads (1192); Online sales (1193); "Non-essential" food containers (1194); Insecticides, pesticides and bull semen (1195); Alternative fuel vehicles (1196); … [Read more...]
Tax on a Fee? Thank Bill Ritter, Diane Primavera and Colorado Democrats
Thanks to the Democrats in the state legislature, a new tire-waste disposal fee isn't good enough: You're also getting taxed on the fee! Yes, that's right. Check out the new report created by my Independence Institute colleague Todd Shepherd:Imagine paying for your new car tags, and the person behind the counter also assesses a sales tax on your total tag price. Or imagine paying a government toll on a highway, and sales tax is assessed to the toll as well. It may sound far-fetched, but when you purchase new tires, it's happening. … [Read more...]
Why Exactly Are Democrats Heavily Pursuing Unpopular Obama Care?
The Washington Examiner's Byron York interviews an anonymous Democratic political strategist to help answer some questions that have been nagging me, too:To some observers, the Democrats' race to pass national health care seems irrational -- even suicidal. Don't party leaders understand how much the public opposes the bills currently on the table? Don't they know that voters are likely to take their revenge at the polls next year? Given that, why do they keep rushing ahead? We already had a notion of this folly from our junior U.S. Senator appointee Michael Bennet. Yet even if the Democrats are going to be headstrong about trying to force through any particular kind of this terribly unpopular legislation, it can't hurt to remind them why … [Read more...]
Rasmussen: GOP Congress Out of Touch, Democrats Even Less Trusted
I've spent the past several days trying to reach a coherent synthesis from these two poll results taken by Rasmussen: 73 percent of Republican voters say Republicans in Congress have lost touch with their base -- men and older voters are more likely to share these sentiments; and (unsurprisingly) far more voters obviously are concerned about economic, fiscal, and national security issues than domestic or cultural issues General election voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 key electoral issues -- with double-digit advantages in national security, Iraq, taxes, economy and abortion So what should Republican politicians and candidates learn from these results? I mean, besides the fact that it's hard to make too much … [Read more...]
“It’s Too Hard”: Democrats Shoving Health Care Takeover Down our Throats
You can almost hear Democratic Senator Max Baucus pouting in a high-pitched, whiny voice: "It's too ha-ard...." What, you ask, is too hard for one of the 100 most powerful people in Washington DC, who supposedly represents the people of the great state of Montana, and nearly all of his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee? From yesterday's Washington Examiner:A proposal by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., that would have required the Senate Finance Committee to post the final language of the $900 billion health care reform bill, as well as a Congressional Budget Office cost analysis, on the committee’s website for 72 hours prior to a vote was rejected 12-11.... Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., himself admitted that “This … [Read more...]
Are Colorado Democrats Prepping for Another Raid on Pinnacol Assurance?
Back from technology-imposed blogging exile, Joshua has christened the new-look View from a Height with a terrific catch of Democrat state senator Morgan Carroll on a "fact-finding" expedition to prep the next round of attacks on the state's privately-funded Pinnacol Assurance. Both he and I find Carroll's response less than persuasive. What say you? … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 50
- Next Page »