A special session of deception

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” — Sir Walter Scott, from his poem “Marmion”

First, to John Pontius, my great high school English Lit teacher, I’m pretty sure I remembered this quote from an old rerun of “Bewitched,” not your class. Sorry. But the lesson holds true as this week’s special legislative session could have been avoided if only our elected officials didn’t practice to deceive, which seems their default operating procedure.

A quick refresher for those who have a life, and don’t follow how special interests run the legislature: The first big deception leading to this special session was how the legislature expanded Medicaid, putting nearly one out of every four Coloradans on welfare without any permanent way to fund it. They should have gone to the voters and asked if we wanted to pay for this massive expansion of Obamacare. Knowing we’d overwhelmingly reject it, they of course did it anyway.

This strategy works: get people addicted to a new entitlement and when it crowds out funding for other basic services, raise taxes for those “under-funded” core governmental functions people do support, like roads or education. It’s the classic bait and switch.

To start funding their expansion of Medicaid, the legislature raised taxes on your stay in a hospital by calling it a “fee,” not a “tax” (which is what other states and the feds call it), thus avoiding the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights requirement of asking your consent. They won’t even allow hospitals to show this “fee” on your hospital bill, so you’ll get angry at the hospital, and not them.

And then there’s last session’s deception of pulling the Hospital Provider Fee/ Tax out from the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights cap altogether with Senate Bill 267, increasing our taxes by $550 million a year without letting us vote on it.

Republicans who control the senate and fib about standing up for taxpayers are to blame. For example, Senate President Kevin Grantham stated on his website that the state should refund all excess revenue, “as (TABOR) requires. … Also, these taxes and fees should be levied only through the strict adherence to TABOR without circumvention through the use of fee increases (my emphasis) and the Colorado Supreme Court.” He then orchestrated this plan to use “fees” to take away our TABOR refunds without a vote. Classic!

SB 267 was rushed through the last three days of the session, and was so embarrassingly sloppy no one who voted for it apparently read it. While it raised taxes on marijuana sales (which voters did give permission for), it “accidentally” cut those revenues from special districts like the Regional Transportation District and the Science & Cultural Facilities District which funds the zoo and botanic gardens. Thus, the governor called this week’s special session to fix the bill he and his people didn’t read.

And this special session is a set-up for yet another deception.

These marijuana taxes are not currently going to special districts because it’s now the law, passed by the legislature, signed by the governor. Worth repeating — RTD and SCFD are not getting those funds currently because it’s the damn law.

To give them those taxes again is a change to tax policy which, according to our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (oh, and ethics), requires a vote of the people.

Simply put, the legislature has the power to lower taxes, as they did with our income tax rates under Gov. Bill Owens, but to raise them back again requires them to ask us at the ballot box, the thing they’ve proven over and over again lawmakers won’t do.

So, will Senate Republicans sell out taxpayers and circumvent a public vote yet again? Maybe Sen. Grantham will man up and finally keep to his campaign promises. If not, maybe Majority Leader Chris Holbert, who has the power to change committee assignments, will make sure another deception doesn’t come out of committee.

Either way, knowing we can’t count on Democrats or the courts, here’s an opportunity for Republicans to respect taxpayers’ right to vote and not deceive Coloradans.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a libertarian-conservative think tank in Denver, and host of “Devil’s Advocate” on Colorado Public Television.