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RECEIPTS: Polis doesn't actually care about saving Coloradans money
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Greenwood Village, Colorado. - Democrat Governor Jared Polis has recently spent a lot of time trying to claim he's saving Coloradans money and making our state safer. He's tried to take credit for TABOR and the many benefits Colorado citizens receive from it. However, we shouldn't forget he's spent the last three years pushing and signing legislation and policies that hurt working families.
Before anyone claims that Polis cares about saving Coloradans money or making us safer, please take a look at the list below which proves the opposite. |
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“As we said last August outside of a Denver gas station, Democrats are making Colorado unaffordable for working families. The average family is now paying $460 more a month for the same goods and services. Republicans have promised to solve problems with our Commitment to Colorado. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to double down on their reckless tax and spend, pro-criminal platform. Polis is a bad faith chameleon trying to use the Republican agenda to trick Coloradans into giving him another 4 years. Records don't lie, even though Governor Polis does.” - Colorado Republican Chairman Kristi Burton Brown
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52 Times Jared Polis and the Democrats Lied or Hurt Working Families
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TAXES, FEES, and HIGHER COSTS
1. When Polis was elected, the State Budget was $30.6 billion. This year, he signed a budget that was $38.1 billion. Most Coloradans haven’t seen an almost 25% increase to their wages over this same time period. This growth in government spending shows he’s clearly not saving you – or anyone – money.
2. Those “tax rebates” Polis says he’s sending to you later this year? Yeah. He didn’t “give” you that money. That money is owed to you because of Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). Polis can’t give you something that already belongs to you.
3. That $900 million Polis claims is “property tax relief for homeowners”? Nope. Property taxes are going to go up by $2 BILLION – including a $288 million mill levy increase that he signed last year. Nice try, pretending to save you a little money while you’re actually paying a lot more.
4. How about the $200 million in property tax relief for businesses? Again, $200 million doesn’t make up for $2 BILLION MORE in TAXES.
5. The $25 million in “property tax relief” for farmers and ranchers? Sorry Polis – still doesn’t make up for the $2 BILLION MORE in property taxes. Interesting, too, that he gives the smallest tax relief to rural Colorado.
6. Polis signed a bill into law creating new fees on Amazon deliveries and Uber and Lyft ride-sharing – even though inflation is 9% and gas is over $5 per gallon. “Saving people money”? Not hardly.
7. At a time when families can barely afford to buy a home in Colorado, Polis refused to support an income tax deduction for rent[1].
8. At a time when people need to share living spaces to afford life in Colorado, Polis refused to back a grant program for homeowners to make residential space available for renters. This would have especially helped seniors and decreased housing costs for college students, but Polis refused.
9. Polis said no to a plan to expand the senior and veteran property tax exemptions, hurting elderly people struggling to stay in their homes and veterans with disabilities.
10. Polis claims he “capped growth” in homeowners’ property tax bills, but he presided over the largest property tax increase in Colorado history.
11. Polis refused to put a permanent cap on property taxes, at a time when Coloradans will face a 20% increase in the next four years.
12. Polis says he gave you “more time” to file assessment appeals on your property – but he’s refused to give property owners real relief. Instead, he delays and defers what’s coming to you anyway: high taxes, demanded from an out-of-touch government and an elitist governor who thinks he can buy his office.
13. Polis claims he’s saving you $2 on your driver’s license fees. But what he’s hoping you forget is how impossible it was to schedule an appoint to renew your driver’s license last year…and how many DMV offices are STILL shut down across the state. Bad service, but still at the basic same cost.
14. Under Polis, Colorado license plate fees are tied for SECOND HIGHEST IN THE NATION, more than double what most states charge.
15. Polis reduced (not eliminated) penalties for filings on fuel taxes, but he refused to reduce or eliminate his own actual tax on fuel. He also delayed – but absolutely refused to repeal – his gas tax and hypocritically told the federal government to suspend their gas tax while he pretended not to hear calls to suspend the state gas tax.
16. Polis refused to support vehicle registration penalty forgiveness, even for people who were unable to register their cars during the pandemic and even though DMV offices were closed throughout the state.
17. Remember Polis’ claiming he “reduced” your vehicle registration fees? Yeah, well that’s only a temporary reduction (until after the election) AND it only happened after he already added “road user charges” to your fees last year.
18. Free driving tests are no more. Under Jared Polis, new drivers will have to hand over hundreds before the state will give them a driver’s license. This makes it MORE expensive, not less, to get to work, go to school, and build a life here in Colorado.
19. Polis decided to use your taxpayer money to give people grants to buy electric bikes. But he won’t permanently lower your gas taxes or repeal the state gas tax he signed into law. He’d rather choose your method of transportation.
20. Polis wants you to think he’s looking out for you because he finally signed a law to stop forcing people who own inoperable vehicles to pay a tax to the government for that vehicle. So awesome.
21. Polis didn’t support a plan to reduce taxes based on Colorado inflation so that working families could have a break.
22. Under Polis, the Democrats refused to end the sales tax on prepared food that working families need to buy to survive.
23. Polis took credit for voters passing a reduction in the state income tax rate. Newsflash, Governor: if voters said yes, it didn’t require your signature or your permission to become law. You didn’t save us money – we voted that you couldn’t take more of it.
24. Polis wants to say he cut the cost of a state parks pass, but he signed a bill forcing all Coloradans who own a vehicle to pay for a pass. Unless you opt out, you’ll now pay for a parks pass each time you register every single one of your cars, trucks, or motorcycles – even if you already have one.
25. Polis didn’t support a law that would have required legislators to get 2/3 vote before they could increase fees (also known as taxes). He’d rather make it easy on himself to take more of your money.
26. Polis refused to support a bill that would require hospitals to be transparent about the fees they charge you that the state currently bans them from showing you.
27. Polis created more boards and commissions so he can hide behind state departments as they do the work of taking your money for him.
28. Polis refused to agree to an income tax credit for resourceful taxpayers who recycle old vehicles and choose to care for the environment in Colorado.
29. Polis helped kill bills that would have held CDOT accountable for the ways they’ve wasted millions of dollars on out-of-state, no-bid contracts, all while failing to get the job done anyway.
30. Polis wants you to think he’s cool because he exempted fertilizer from sales and use tax. But he also presided over a 300% increase in the actual cost of fertilizer. So, nice job, Gov. That sure helped out our farmers and ranchers.
31. Polis let the Democrats wipe out a tax cut passed by voters by signing bills that increased fees by $302 million.
32. Polis wants you to think he created the “Office of Saving People Money,” but he doesn’t want you to realize he refused to make the office accountable or subject to a performance management system. No audits from the public, thank you very much! Polis would rather tell you he’s saving you money – as far as actually doing it…well, that’s another issue entirely.
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DIVIDING COLORADO
33. Polis stood by silently when his husband called rural Coloradans “excessive whiners” who “play the victim card” and when his appointee called farmers and ranchers “lazy and nasty.” When naming which areas of the state he “loves,” Polis couldn’t name a single place in Colorado outside of large cities.
34. Polis gave a tax credit to corporations who use “alternative transportation,” but refused to repeal the gas tax he signed into law in 2021 that hurts average Coloradans simply trying to go to work and school every day.
35. Polis is trying to force schools to buy and use electric buses – even in areas where there aren’t enough electric charging stations.
36. Polis didn’t back the Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program. This would have provided $50 million to local law enforcement to provide critical incident training to officers and make our communities safer for everyone.
37. Polis forgot about seniors and people in long-term care facilities when he didn’t support a bill to have an effective infection control program. Kind of reminds us of his nursing home scandal during COVID when Colorado had the highest death rate in the nation, all while Polis went on the news to say he was the model governor.
HURTING BUSINESS
38. Remember when Polis shut down restaurants and hotels and caterers? Now he’s letting them keep a few months of state sales tax collections! Doesn’t that make up for it?!
39. We know it sounds good to claim it’s “nearly free to register to start a business” in Colorado. But here’s the fact, Polis: you only reduced fees until June of 2023 (conveniently after your election). And – what did you do for all the small businesses you shut down during COVID that can never re-open? That’s right – nothing. Not free for those families.
40. Polis promised Coloradans he didn’t support a proposed setback on oil and gas drilling, but as soon as he was elected, he signed one into law anyway – completing ignoring the will of voters who rejected Prop 112.
FAILING OUR KIDS
41. Polis didn’t support a plan to grant $30 million for school security that’s proven to protect our children from school shootings.
42. Polis wouldn’t support a real solution for crushing student loan debt. He said no to a plan that would have allowed 529 accounts to be used to pay for student loans.
43. Polis didn’t back the Hope Scholarship Program, which would have allowed students to pursue alternative educational opportunities outside of traditional government schools.
44. Polis wouldn’t support scholarship money going to parents or students who were using learning pods – an effective way of keeping kids in school during the pandemic.
45. Polis says he’s for school choice, but when he had the chance to support a law that would have allowed parents the freedom to convert a failing neighborhood school into a vibrant charter school, he chose silence and inaction once again.
46. Polis also refused to support the option for parents to take $5,000 of their child’s per-pupil funding out of a failing public school with them to the school of their choice – even if government said the child’s school had been failing for 5 consecutive years.
47. Polis said no to lending his support to an effort that would have required all school districts to post curriculum and materials for parents to see. So much for parental rights and accountability in education.
48. The Parents Bills of Rights was voted down by the Democrats in the legislature and – as usual – Polis remained silent and aloof, forcing parents to stand alone.
49. When Polis had the option to support a bill creating a refundable state income tax credit for Colorado teachers for their classroom expenses – that come out of their pockets – he did nothing.
50. Polis shot down a scholarship program for Coloradans seeking an education in a building trade – such as construction, plumbing, and electrical work – essential skills for Colorado’s economy.
51. Polis signed a haphazard, half-fix into law at a time when fentanyl deaths in Colorado are the second highest in the nation and refused to listen to district attorneys and law enforcement.
52. Polis couldn’t be bothered to stop courts from releasing people accused of violent offenses without bail or money bonds. Makes sense, since he’s the one who appointed the parole board that let out the Aurora man who continued to sexually assault immigrant children in their own homes.
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