DENVER – An off-year tax vote in Colorado this week likely sent a powerful message to policymakers nationwide who are wondering if voters will consider paying more for services they say they want.
The answer: No way.
Voters here resoundingly rejected the only statewide tax hike on ballots this November, a slight temporary increase in sales and use taxes to shore up public schools decimated by years of budget cuts. In all corners of the state Tuesday, Coloradans also swatted down proposed local tax hikes on dozens of local questions on everything from building a new recreational center in a Denver suburb to hiring a second full-time police officer in a small western Colorado town.
National tax critics pounced on Colorado’s results as proof that Democrats back tax hikes at their own peril.
“Taxpayers in this battleground are not in the mood for more tax-and-spend sinkholes,” wrote conservative columnist Michelle Malkin after the statewide school vote lost.
Even some who expected Colorado’s tax vote to fail seemed surprised by how badly it lost. The measure passed in just three of the state’s 64 counties; overall it lost by nearly 30 percentage points, an electoral blowout.
“People in Colorado, and people all over America, are generous, decent
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