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Ritter slammed for tax policies by free-market institute

By Ed Sealover, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 28, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Gov. Bill Ritter scored in the middle of governors on fiscal policy.

Photo by /The Rocky

Gov. Bill Ritter scored in the middle of governors on fiscal policy.

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Gov. Bill Ritter ranks right in the middle of America's governors when it comes to taxing and spending, according to a new study by the free-market-oriented Cato Institute.

Ritter came in 26th out of 46 governors but still got a "D" on a report card released last month by the influential Washington- based group that champions limited government.

"I wouldn't say he's one of the worst by any means. . . . His spending was actually a little lower than the average for the 46 governors," said Chris Edwards, Cato's tax policy director. "But because those two tax hikes were in a real short period, that was the major strike against him."

What Edwards referred to as tax hikes are the likely centerpieces of the strategy Republicans will follow in trying to unseat Ritter in 2010.

First was the property tax rate freeze in 2007 that was expected to bring in an estimated $117 million a year for the state - legislation that was ruled unconstitutional by a Denver district court. The state appealed, and a decision from the Colorado Supreme Court is expected this year.

Second was Ritter's campaign for Amendment 58, a November ballot measure that would have ended more than $300 million in tax breaks for energy companies. The measure failed after opponents spent heavily on ad campaigns labeling it a tax hike on oil and gas.

The study, which is done every two years and is one of the few in the nation that rank governors on a specific issue, compared the state leaders on their proposed and actual budgets and tax policies.

Specifically, it looked at average annual percentage change in per- capita general fund spending, average value of proposed and enacted tax changes and changes in income, sales and cigarette tax rates.

It was more favorable to Republicans than Democrats, although it praised several Democrats and pummeled a number of Republicans.

Edwards criticized Ritter for hiking taxes in an attempt to expand state government. The fact that Ritter moved to raise taxes twice in less than two years was a major strike against him, Edwards said.

"Since taking office last year, a main focus of Gov. Ritter has been to raise taxes," Edwards wrote in the report, Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors: 2008. "Fortunately, Ritter has a better record on spending. While he has proposed new spending on education and health care, state budget growth has been modest under his tenure."

Ritter ranked 11th out of 26 Democratic governors in terms of fiscal conservatism. Fifteen Republican governors were rated better than him, and five fared worse.

Conserving tax dollars has been in the forefront since plummeting revenue forecasts created a $101 million shortfall in this year's state budget. Ritter earned bipartisan kudos for freezing hiring and construction this year, but he proposed a budget that lifts both freezes and predicts revenue growth next year.

Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer had no reaction to the study, saying that Cato "is not what most people would consider neutral or unbiased in its ideology."

Comments

  • November 28, 2008

    12:39 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    HopiMedicineMan writes:

    The US economy is going down the tubes (thank you George Bush and Barney Frank). Unlike the Great Depression, recovery this time will depend not on a Keynesian solution, but on revenues. “Pump priming” or borrowing is effective when there’s no debt. It took 30 years to payoff WWII. Such a war undertaking today would be impossible with so much debt and with little domestic oil production. We’ll soon have some half-million in debt per tax payer. Without significant ramping up of revenues, we’re bankrupt. Colorado possesses oil reserves the development of which Ritter is discouraging when the nation needs to end the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world from America to the Middle East. Ritter should be at the very bottom of the list—the last one--not in the middle.

  • December 3, 2008

    11:16 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    socrates writes:

    Two comments:
    1 - since when is the Cato Institute "influential"?
    2 - What is a tax increase? I would assume a tax increase would be ... I don't know... maybe something that increases taxes. The two examples cited here - one is a tax freeze (not an increase) and the other was Ritter advocating to remove a subsidy for oil companies.

    As has been observed by many with respect to other entitlement programs, as soon as someone talks about removing an entitlement (in this case for oil companies) they scream about how they're raising taxes.

    If the oil companies still can't figure out a way to run a profitable business after 100 years, maybe they should find another line of work.