Last fall Colorado Democrats supporting Referendum C poo-poohed the notion that they were attempting to grow the size of state government, just restore some pre-recession cuts. Yet as April Washington reports in today’s Rocky Mountain News, with Democrats in charge in both houses at the State Capitol, state government payroll has added more than 1,000 jobs since the beginning of 2006.
Both Republican candidates for governor have the right idea: hold Ref C supporters to their word and refund any additional revenue raised above the amount forecasted to be raised by the voter-approved mandate. For Marc Holtzman, it’s the $3.1 billion figure originally released by the Legislative Council in 2005. For Bob Beauprez, it’s the revised $3.7 billion estimate tossed around during the heat of the campaign season.
In either case, the message is clear: the Democrats obviously have more money than they need. So while honoring the will of the voters last year, let’s hold the tax-raising politicians to their promises and put a little money back in the pockets of average, hard-working Colorado families. Sounds simple, right? Well, here is one of the clearest divides on this year’s ballot between fiscally conservative Republicans and tax-and-spend Democrats.
Whichever Republican gubernatorial candidate comes out on top needs to be held to these promises to the taxpayer.
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