David Harsanyi: "i don't think you want to move to colorado ..."

Nick Gillespie | May 26, 2009

I take it all back about wanting to move to Colorado!

Denver Post and Reason.com columnist David Harsanyi counts the many ways that Colorado legislators have gotten around the tax-limiting legislation known as TABOR. A snippet:

This year, the Colorado Dem. legislature lifted the statutory provision on the general fund's annual growth to 6 percent forever - without going to a vote of the people. (They already lifted that cap for a five-year window with the passage of Referendum C in 2005). The Governor is already talking about forming one of his ubiquitous committees to look into overturning TABOR in 2011.

Instead of raising taxes, our imaginative legislature simply kept raising fees (like $250 million on vehicle registration fees, $600 million on hospitals and the elimination of the state sales-tax exemption on cigarettes, to name a few). A property tax "freeze" was also lifted that has the potential to cost taxpayers many $1.7 billion in new taxes.

More on this here. And this isn't even factoring in the likely (though unfortunate) ultimate choking of the Denver Nuggets vs. the Los Angeles Lakers!

Comments

|5.26.09 @ 2:14PM|#

Getting rid of the property tax freeze essentially gives them free money. Just send the appraiser out to revalue homes. We stopped that in California decades ago, with Proposition 13, and all the liberals have been whining about it ever since. With our current budget crisis and looming bankruptcy, Ahnold and friends will be trying to overturn it.

Flex Nasty B.I.G.|5.26.09 @ 2:26PM|#

Yes, I get it already. We're completely and totally doomed. To which country should we move? Canada? Switzerland? Netherlands?

|5.26.09 @ 2:28PM|#

The nuggets didn't choke. They were simply unable to play effectively with all five facing Kobe constantly due to his ability drive the backdoor at will in Colorado.

The Chad|5.26.09 @ 2:45PM|#

I vote Australia. Any downsides we should be aware of?

Xeones|5.26.09 @ 2:51PM|#

Lots and lots of poisonous animals, The Chad. Also, gun control and social democracy.

|5.26.09 @ 2:55PM|#

On the other hand, they have Victoria Bitter. And you won't have to learn a foreign language, unlike Ireland.

|5.26.09 @ 3:03PM|#

And you won't have to learn a foreign language, unlike Ireland.

When did Ireland have to learn a foreign language?!

Immigration Realist|5.26.09 @ 3:03PM|#

Do you drive through Pico-Union everyday, Nick? DIDN'T think SO.

|5.26.09 @ 3:04PM|#

facing Kobe constantly due to his ability drive the backdoor at will in Colorado.

Is that the legal precedent that was set in that case? I would have thought that whole situation would have made him more careful to obtain permission before slipping it top shelf.

|5.26.09 @ 3:04PM|#

I don't think Oz is a good choice, Chad.

Jemaine: It doesn't matter what country someone's from, or what they look like, or the color of their skin. It doesn't matter what they smell like, or that they spell words slightly differently...some would say, more correctly.

Sinjay: Yeah...

Jemaine: Let me finish. I'm a person. Bret's a person. You're a person. That person over there is a person. And each person deserves to be treated like a person.

Sinjay: That's a great speech. Too bad New Zealanders are a bunch of cocky a-holes descended from criminals and retarded monkeys.

Jemaine: No, you're thinking of Australians.

Bret: Yeah, that's Australians.

Hat Trick|5.26.09 @ 3:08PM|#

I live in Colorado, and had the good fortune of getting my property tax assessment a few weeks go. Amazingly, according to the Good 'Ol State of CO, my house went up in value 20%! I must be getting my news from the wrong source!

|5.26.09 @ 3:19PM|#

On the other hand, they have Victoria Bitter. And you won't have to learn a foreign language, unlike Ireland.

Just make sure you don't ask any of your new Australian friends which team they're rooting for in Saturday's footie match.

And if you say a girl has a nice fanny people will get the impression that you know her a lot better than you actually do.

When did Ireland have to learn a foreign language?!

I got the impression he meant that the Irish have funny accents.

But that doesn't really work since the Australian accent can get every bit as incomprehensible.

|5.26.09 @ 4:01PM|#

They were simply unable to play effectively with all five facing Kobe constantly due to his ability drive the backdoor at will in Colorado.

The ten minutes of that series that I watched made it pretty clear that Kobe could buttfuck any Nugget at any time, yes.

GILMORE|5.26.09 @ 4:23PM|#

Uh...

Denver won game 4. Its 2-2. Or did I miss something?

Pot stop|5.26.09 @ 5:39PM|#

Australia is a bad country to move to because they have the same problems as the U.S. Instead, consider, Singapore, Hong Kong, Chile, Panama, Costa Rica.

Mike|5.26.09 @ 6:17PM|#

I guess the Californians weren't content to just ruin California. Now they've moved to Colorado and are ruining it too. Why do all the tools have to live in the prettiest states?

|5.27.09 @ 8:50PM|#

# Mike | May 26, 2009, 6:17pm | #

# I guess the Californians weren't content to
# just ruin California.

I'll thank you not to label transients and transplants, immigrants both interstate and international, as Californians. Because that is the majority of the population, and has been for a long time. The people who have ruined this State the worst either arrived, stayed long enough to do their business, and left, or they found a way to be on the top of the heap -- and beyond the laws and circumstances they foisted upon all the rest of us -- while we festered below. I have watched this process take place for well over 40 years. They're not Californians. They are human locusts and parasites. I hope they get stopped somewhere along the line.

People who put down roots in California -- or who have been here all their lives -- tend to have a lot more sense, in my experience.