Denver Post takes on Tabor amendment.

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/20/colorado-voters-taxpayer-bill-rights/

The Post does a decent job of describing how the state legislature (currently split between the GOP and Democrats) is dealing with Tabor. Yet they just can't tell the whole story. The poor gut sucked dry with fee increases while the rich get and demand more tax cuts.

snip:
Look no further than last session’s Senate Bill 267 to understand the convoluted policies that this creates.

The far-reaching measure exempted a $264 million hospital provider fee from the TABOR spending cap, raised pot taxes to pay for a business tax credit, doubled Medicaid prescription co-pays and called for $1.9 billion in borrowing for roads — all without a vote of the public.


Just think they raised copays and pot taxes to pay for a business tax credit! The GOP has long wanted this particular tax credit but the Post doesn't really explain this particular tax credit.

Also:

•In 2003, the Republican-led legislature authorized $130 million in a mortgage-like arrangement known as a certificate of participation to pay for a new prison — the sort of project that, if funded by bonds, would have had to go to a vote of the people. The prison, completed in 2010, sits empty today, but taxpayers were left on the hook for $208 million in payments, with interest.

Finally,

Take higher education. In 2001, the state paid 67 percent of the cost of public higher education, with students chipping in the remaining third. By 2016, that ratio had almost flipped. Students now contribute up to 64 percent of the costs of Colorado’s public universities.

The Post doesn't explain that the GOP had a tax cut before 2001's dot com bubble collapse. Businesses and the wealthy got a larger share of the tax cut by design. Then with the dot com bubble collapse there wasn't enough money so the GOP-controlled state legislature cut funds for colleges.

Also, this past July, the fee for driver's licenses and IDs went up while wages are stagnant. Although people like Tabor, they just don't get it: they are being sucked dry while the rich continue to get and demand further tax breaks.