Norma Anderson is one of the politician-plaintiffs challenging Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights in federal court. The former Republican state senator claims the citizen-enacted measure, requiring a vote of the people to raise taxes, is unconstitutional. Why? It violates the legislature’s divine right to raise taxes without having to bother to obtain voter approval.
“We should eliminate the initiative to change the constitution,” she wrote in the bimonthly magazine of the Colorado Municipal League, “but continue the process for the statutes.”
Then, only the legislature would have the power to propose amendments — or, I should say, not propose amendments — like term limits or tax-and-spending limits.
Plus, legislators can repeal any statutory initiative they don’t like. That happened with campaign finance reform.
Anderson complains that Colorado’s “constitution has been amended repeatedly by initiative” and that all those amendments “have made it the wordiest and longest in the nation.”
True?
No. Colorado doesn’t have the longest state constitution. Or the second longest. Or third or fourth or the fifth longest. Colorado’s ranks seventh in word count.
Moreover, the campaign finance measure noted above accounts for nearly 10 percent of the constitution’s verbiage.
Besides, most of the amendments to Colorado’s constitution have come from legislators, not through citizen-initiated petitions. Since voter initiatives began, roughly two-thirds, 63 percent, have come from the legislature.
Forget the facts, though, Anderson and her fellow politicians have had enough of popular government.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
6 replies on “Rocky Mountain Facts”
“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe, while Congress is in session.” — Mark Twain
Some things just don’t change,
We do not need a popular government, we need a limited government. If it it popular it is due to redistribution a and a tyranny of the majority.
Socialism is not for the socialists. It for everyone else.
What have been the major ballot initiatives?
* CA’s Prop 13 to stop runaway property taxes.
* Term limits.
* Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
How have we gotten dramatic expansions of government?
* Obamacare passed by Congress w/ majority of public opposed.
* Bush’s Medicare Drug Benefit passed by Congress w/o public support.
What was done in Washington through initiatives provide further examples. Marriage was deconstructed and marijuana was legalized. These were passed by two or three counties out of 39. I may add that King County was accidentally sent 10,000 extra ballots. Not only that, King Co. is counted last. They always seem to come up with the votes to override the rest of the counties.
So direct democracy is also a way of introducing a kind of Dionysian/Bacchanalian Cult into a culture that never wanted it. The destruction of an open society can also be effected by debauching the people. The little MJ shops were already in place in small towns before this was passed, and the schools were already teaching sexual practices to 5 year olds, so based on these facts it appears that the passage of these initiatives simply provided the technical legality.
Note that Norma Anderson is a Republican (now retired) who’s asking to remove this limit on government taxation.
It just shows that Republicans, contrary to their rhetoric, are big spenders. I’d say, “just like Obama” but that wouldn’t be correct.
Many conservatives would be surprised to know that Republicans are WORSE on spending than Democrats. http://reason.com/blog/2013/05/09/veronique-de-rugy-on-why-government-spen
Which goes to show, our enemy is the government.