Tobacco Tax Follies
Amendment 35 imposes a 320 percent increase in state taxes on a pack of cigarettes. In what should be a clear warning to anyone who cares about good government, it simultaneously zaps TABOR restrictions and prohibits the legislature from overseeing how the money is spent.
Tobacco Tax Follies
Amendment 35 imposes a 320 percent increase in state taxes on a pack of cigarettes. In what should be a clear warning to anyone who cares about good government, it simultaneously zaps TABOR restrictions and prohibits the legislature from overseeing how the money is spent. nbsp; Along with gutting legislative oversight, the Amendment guarantees that […]
The Mobility Plan for Denver
In 2001, Denver was the nation’s twentieth-largest urban area, but by most measures it suffered the nation’s fourth or fifth worst congestion. The Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) predicts that, under its 2025 regional transportation plan, the amount of time the average Denver resident wastes sitting in traffic will increase by 73 percent by 2025. RTD’s plan to build FasTracks will reduce this only slightly to a 65-percent increase.
Amendment 35 Taxing Tobacco Users to Fund Special Interests
Proponents of the Tobacco Tax initiative claim that increasing taxes on tobacco products will improve health care for children, help smokers by making them quit, and help taxpayers by making smokers pay for the extra health care that their habit makes them consume. These claims are grossly misleading. At bottom, Amendment 35 is a reverse Robin Hood, an attempt to take money from the relatively poor for the benefit of the relatively rich who populate a handful of special interest groups. The Amendment frees spending by these groups from both TABOR and normal legislative oversight, requires that spending levels increase in a fashion reminiscent of Amendment 23, and gives them eternal control of the new tax revenues.
