I CAN’T WAIT TO GET OUT OF THIS STATE: Alcohol ‘fees’ another end-run around Colorado voter consent.

Volumes could be written on the misguided language and intent of the bill, which incorrectly assumes that it is someone else’s fault for individuals choosing to partake in alcohol consumption, and that they must therefore be punished.

However, for our purposes, let’s focus on the bill’s insidious attempt to bypass voter consent.

Despite the constant catastrophizing about not having enough revenue, Colorado lawmakers deliberately continue to ignore the fact that state government has grown far beyond what was ever intended by TABOR.

While tax revenue subject to voter consent has grown by only 44% since TABOR passed, voter-consent-exempt cash funds, such as those generated by HB-1271, have grown by 588%.

But it gets worse. Because of the meteoric increase in enterprise revenues, voters passed Proposition 117 in 2020 to require ballot-box approval of new enterprises whose expected revenues would exceed $100 million in the first five years.

With utter disregard for Colorado voters, legislators now use the scheme of creating several enterprises in place of a single enterprise to keep revenue below the threshold set by Prop 117, thus avoiding voter approval.

Not only that, but it’s guaranteed that the bill’s “three new enterprises in the Behavioral Health Administration” will prove nothing more than a taxpayer-funded money stream to lefty groups.