by Hal Walter
Here in politically regressive Custer County I’ve seen a number of interesting bumper stickers reflecting the general dissatisfaction of the majority so-called conservative crowd. Perhaps the most interesting is one that depicts the old green-and-white Colorado mountain license plate, the artwork that became the basis for a generation of bumpers stickers that said “Native,” “Skier,” etc.
This one simply says “Taxarado.”
Marketing experts know that if you say anything enough times people will begin to believe it. And it doesn’t really matter what it is.
• The world is flat.
• Republicans are fiscally conservative.
• Liberals are big spenders.
• Cutting taxes will raise revenues.
• Spending more on education doesn’t provide pupils with a better learning experience.
• Coloradans pay excessive taxes.
Now, before we venture any further, let’s set one fact straight. According to the U.S. Census, Coloradans pay per-capita the fourth lowest taxes in the nation. Yet even some Republican candidates for political office have adopted the “Taxarado” slogan.
I had to think for some time before it occurred to me that “Taxarado” was referring to the new per-vehicle tax that’s imposed on all license plates and renewals. I recently had to pay an additional fee when I registered my stock trailer for 2010.
While the additional tax took the total to more than I was paying to register an old car, which has an actual engine, steering wheel, heat and radio, I was still not all that put-off by paying the additional fee because doing so gives me the privilege to pull this trailer over thousands of miles of roads and highways in the state. Somebody has to pay for the repair and maintenance of those roads. It might as well be those of us who use them, and we’re talking about the price of about one tank of gas for my truck. By the way, these roads need to be kept in good repair to serve our state’s biggest industry, tourism; otherwise Colorado will suffer even further decline in revenues.
Likewise, I’ve been puzzled by another of the latest conservative nonsense mantras: “More money does not mean better education.”
What horsecrap. Of course spending more money on education would result in better education. More money means better teacher pay which attracts better teachers. It means better student-to-teacher ratios, better curriculums, better equipment and better facilities. If more money does not mean better education, why do so many people with money pay more for their kids to go to private schools? Why do the better colleges and universities cost more to attend?
But like I said, if you repeat something enough times, put it on a bumper sticker, get it on the radio rant shows, people will begin to believe it.
By the way, while we’re enjoying the fourth-lowest taxes in the country, we’re paying our teachers, on average, the worst of any state in the nation. Colorado ranks last among all 50 states in a comparison by www.teachersalaryinfo.com.
Nice, huh?
How did our state get so financially out of whack? I have my theory and here it is. Colorado has experienced phenomenal growth in population over the past two decades. We’ve gone from a population of about 3.5 million people to more than 5 million people in less than two decades. During this time our state’s political leaders – and we all know which political party was in control for most of this period of growth – did very little to increase revenues. Meanwhile they also made little reinvestment in roads and schools. In fact, the legislature at one point declared its own tea party and sent everyone in the state a surplus check
The problem was, the growing pressure on our infrastructure, such as roads, and services, like education, not only continued to need funding, but this cost also increased exponentially. There were suddenly hundreds of thousands more motorists and parents sending kids to school. And the price of everything went up.
It’s fairly easy to rely on the increasing number of people paying taxes to run up a budget surplus if you don’t keep pace paying for the strains of growth, or make some sort of policy shift to cover these burgeoning bills.
In plain terms, it was bad planning.
Now our roads and bridges are falling apart, many schools are in shambles and we offer teacher salaries that will not likely attract the brightest new minds – they’re more likely to look for jobs in Maryland or California where teachers are paid nearly twice as much as in Colorado.
Here’s a hot news tip for you: Regardless of what political party is running the state, taxes in Colorado are going to increase. There’s no way around it.
But if “Taxarado” is just too much for you, and you still don’t think you should pay your fair share for roads and schools, you can always move to one of the three states with lower taxes. They are New Hampshire, Texas and South Dakota.
Hal Walter writes and edits from the Wet Mountains. You can keep up with him regularly at his blog: www.hardscrabbletimes.com
