Looking For A Tax To Raise

If the Colorado economy weren't about to tank, Bill Ritter would very likely be trying to raise income taxes or property taxes (again). With TABOR still in force, Ritter and company can only try to raise taxes through elections. That limits attempts to the month of November. Each missed November is a missed "opportunity."

We had speculated elsewhere that the easiest tax to try to raise is the Severance Tax because the companies which pay that tax have no vote. We had thought that Ritter would sting the voters with a Transportation tax or a Higher Education tax, and then do the easy tax.

We were wrong, or were we? The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that Ritter is preparing the ground for a Severance tax increase vote this year.

We suspect that Ritter wanted to raise taxes for these other items but got scared off by the economy. So now, the easy tax may be the only tax he can try to raise.