Our View - Wednesday

Grab your wallets

2008 could be banner year for tax raisers

If Colorado had an Tax Increase Early Warning System — and every state should have one — the sirens would be wailing away right now. In case readers hadn’t noticed, the groundwork is being laid for tax hikes next year — how else can we afford to address three alleged “crises” facing the state, in higher education, with the medically uninsured and our aging transportation infrastructure? And unless citizens send Gov. Bill Ritter and legislators a clear signal that they aren’t going to get rolled without a fight, 2008 could be the year Democrats begin to live up to their billing as the party of tax-and-spend.

The pitch began several months ago for a boost in higher ed funding — much as if the voters hadn’t several years ago approved a measure (anyone member Referendum C? ) that left more than $5 billion of TABOR refunds in state hands. Apparently, politicians are counting on us having a case of mass amnesia. The customary arguments are being dusted off, about how backward and behind Colorado is in terms of funding levels. But where more money might come from is unclear.

A pair of legislators propose diverting some revenues generated by the state’s energy boom into a trust fund to benefit state colleges. That might help mitigate the need for a tax hike. But since the idea comes from Republicans — and since the governor and other Democrats seem more interested in curtailing drilling than in making good use of the drilling dividend — the plan has a slim chance of success.

A Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform will soon be presenting options for insuring the estimated 758,000 Coloradans who now go without. The four plans that survived the winnowing process run the gamut, from a modest plunge into socialized medicine to a universal, one-payer system along Soviet lines — but none comes without a hefty price tag.

A few of the plans turn to so-called sin taxes as a funding mechanism, imposing new assessments not just on tobacco but on alcohol and snack foods. This might help these plans win at the ballot, if they make it that far. But a tax is a tax is a tax, in our view. Each imposes an unjust burden on one party for the benefit of another. And without an accompanying plan for containing health care costs, any new health insurance entitlement is certain to become a huge fiscal burden.

Then, on Monday, we learned in a Gazette headline that “Gas tax no longer enough to fix our highways.” Yet another blue ribbon commission is working on ways to meet the state’s infrastructure challenges. The 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax has lost at least one-third of its purchasing power since it last was raised in 1993, and the state gas tax of 22 cents per gallon hasn’t gone up since 1991. A Colorado Department of Transportation analysis says $2 billion more a year will be needed (over the next 23 years) to implement its 2030 vision for state and local roads, The Gazette reported.

“Many Colorado legislators believe it highly unlikely that voters will approve a gas-tax hike at a time when fuel prices are near record levels,” noted The Gazette. That has lawmakers mulling other options, from the fairly conventional (charging tolls) to the frightening (tracking vehicles via GPS, in Big Brother fashion, and assessing charges based on miles driven and commuting patterns). But all ultimately will mean less money in your pocket and more in the state’s.

We don’t argue that taxes should never, under any circumstances, be raised. But this confluence of alleged “crises,” along with the fact that Democrats now operate virtually unchallenged, has us dreading 2008.

Before they come back to taxpayers, hat in hand, Ritter and Statehouse Democrats owe Coloradans a complete accounting of where the Referendum C money is going. They also need to answer charges by Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany that they diverted $53.5 million in road funds to lesser priorities. And before tax hikes are seriously discussed, other revenue streams should be redirected toward roads and bridges — including energy revenues and the millions of dollars in lottery proceeds that go for land acquisitions and parks. Buying “open space” is a luxury we can’t afford at a time when basic infrastructure is crumbling. Building roads is a legitimate function of government and needs to take top priority.

The taxpayers will be in more of a giving mood if they see that trade-offs are made, sacrifices are shared and no sacred cows are safe.

Two steps removed

What struck us while reading a story in Sunday’s New York Times about the Big Brother-like use of technologies and national identification cards by the Chinese government wasn’t just how oppressive it was, but how close we are to such a surveillance state in the United States, if the security uber alles crowd has its way.

While highlighting China’s use of cameras, facial recognition programs and coded ID cards as a means of social and political control, the story glossed over the increasing use of these same methods and means in the United States. In some ways, we seem only a few steps removed — and one terror attack away — from a similar situation here.

A third reaction was revulsion that U.S. companies are involved in building Big Brother in China. “We have a very good relationship with U.S. companies like IBM, Cisco, H.P., Dell,” the head of China Public Security told The Times. “All of these U.S. companies work with us to build our system together.”

We support U.S. economic ties with China — but also believe U.S. companies have an obligation to uphold American values when doing business with foreign regimes. These companies are selling their souls in pursuit of a fast buck. And Congress should call them to account, just as it did American Internet service providers who have helped the Chinese government censor Web content.