Letter to The Denver Post,
published 6/25/09

BENEVOLENT SUCKERS END UP PAYING TAXES TWICE

Letter-writer Bill Blomberg, 6/15/09, “Don’t extend stadium tax . . .” has it right. We taxpayers are benevolent suckers, not only for helping fund these grandiose professional sports arenas through public-private partnerships, but we usually get hit in the pocketbook again by having to make up for the lost property-tax revenues that would have flown into the public education system had these properties been privately owned.

With commercial property assessed at double the household rate (under the Gallagher Amendment), the amount of tax loss over the years appears staggering. Perhaps a law calling for some sort of an in-lieu fee to make up for the loss in ad valorem tax revenue would be fair and appropriate.

(Redacted: That same idea could be extended to require tort lawyers to pony up a realistic portion of their court winnings as a rental fee for using the elaborate public facilities we taxpayers provide to them to pursue their profession.)

But instead of providing leadership and innovation to plug these holes and tap the wealth where it is, the tax-and-spend Democrats who control our state government waste their time and ours trying to gut TABOR.
What folly.

P.