Anna Stonehouse, The Aspen TimesCarbondale resident Hayley Wegele does some grocery shopping on Tuesday morning in Aspen providing her own reusable bags. Some of the most consequential fights over Colorado government finance in the coming years won’t happen at the state legislature or at the ballot box, but in a courtroom, where fiscal conservatives and business groups are contesting government fees of as little as 20 cents. In Aspen, a taxpayer advocacy group is fighting a 20-cent surcharge on grocery bags in a lawsuit that’s now gone all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court. At the state government level, a small business coalition is arguing that the secretary of state’s office for decades has been illegally using business filing fees to finance a slew of unrelated government services. And — perhaps most significantly — the TABOR Foundation is challenging the constitutionality of a $264 million hospital fee that generates another $264 million in matching funds from the federal government to pay for uncompensated care. At issue in each of these cases is a seemingly simple question: What’s the difference between a tax and a fee? But no matter how small some of the contested fees are, the answer could have wide-ranging consequences for taxpayers and virtually every level of Colorado government. “Enormous implications” The tax-vs.-fee debate is not unique to Colorado, but the ramifications here are amplified by the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which requires voter approval to raise taxes. After the landmark constitutional measure was passed in 1992, lawmakers have increasingly turned to fees to fund government services ranging from higher education to bridge repairs to hospitals.
How A Court Fight Over A 20-cent Bag Fee Could Change The Way Coloradans Pay For Government
Brian Eason, Denver Post
Tue, 09/19/2017 - 5:30am
Topics: anna stonehouse the aspen timescarbondale hayley wegele in aspen enormous denver county district john straayer colorado state university straayer william perry pendley mountain states legal foundation related articles colorado secretary appeals we suzanne staiert national federation independent business where s to jason dunn nfib s roughly complicating conducting that s potentially colorado union taxpayers pendley andrea bryan aspen s justice william hood would aspen a the we colorado colorado colorado supreme court tabor taxpayer s bill rights i if if straayer state i nfib supreme staiert dunn june fight 20-cent change government bag fee fees fund filing services question taxes office case tax-vs.-fee grocery general hospital public raise bags slew issue lawmakers benefit lawsuit ballot representing years finance small answered line providing challenges firm attorney level elections pending million challenging agency crippling political charges brought approval dispute arguments oral officials cases matter guidance program definition implications city voter increased municipalities debate
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