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Our governor, Bill Ritter, has come under fire for his recent veto of a labor bill, but I hope that doesn't discourage him from vetoing another measure, one that is a gross violation of common fairness and the intent of our state constitution.
The measure is Senate Bill 173, which was sent to the
governor last week after passing in both houses of the
legislature. It's called the Colorado Regional Tourism
Act,
and supports the economic development of
large-scale regional tourism projects to be partially
financed with a portion of state sales tax revenue above an
existing base amount.
In essence, it's a mechanism for subsidizing private
ventures. It first came to my attention from a front-page
story in a publication called The Saturday Post,
which looks nothing like The Saturday Evening Post
of yore and a lot like The Denver Post
which arrives
on the other six days.
The story was about a proposal to build a NASCAR auto-racing track in Aurora.
I wouldn't walk across the street to see a NASCAR event. But if there are people willing to pay for hours of sweltering in the sun amid ear-splitting noise while eagerly awaiting energetic collisions, and some entrepreneur wishes to profit from them, then fine by me.
However, the plan is use millions of dollars in tax
incentives
from the Regional Tourism Act to build the
track, which would be a tourist attraction, according to
Rep. Jim Kerr, a Littleton Republican: NASCAR is one of
the biggest tourist draws in the country right now. These
fans plan their lives around it. They buy motor homes and
go watch it.
In other words, they don't rent motel rooms, and they may well cook their meals in those motor homes, rather than patronize our restaurants. If this is economic development, why not advertise for hitch-hikers?
It's unfair to private owners of tourist attractions. If their revenues go up, they pay more in sales taxes that support general governmental services. But a new Large-Scale Regional Tourist Attraction would be able to use sales-tax revenue to help pay its bills.
What a wonderful way to encourage private investment in Colorado. Just think about how willing you would be to put money into a tourist attraction, knowing that somewhere down the road, one or more local governments could decide to subsidize your competition.
Further, since some local tax revenues in much of Colorado already go toward promoting tourist attractions, which ones are more likely to get promoted? Totally private ventures, or those blessed as Large-Scale Regional Tourist Attractions?
If we're going to be unfair, why can't we be honest about it, and just appropriate the money directly to well-connected corporations that want to build Large-Scale Regional Tourist Attractions?
Because subsidizing private entities it in a direct way
is a violation of Article XI of our state constitution,
which says that Neither the state, nor any county, city,
town, township, or school district shall make any donation
or grant to, or in aid of, or become a subscriber to, or
shareholder in any corporation or company or a joint owner
with any person, company, or corporation, public or
private, in or out of the state...
There are exceptions, such as for municipal utilities
and for enterprises seized for failure to pay taxes. But
there's no exception for economic development
or
Large-Scale Regional Tourist Attractions.
So instead of donating money to private ventures, which would be in open violation of the supreme law of Colorado, this bill arranges to achieve the same result by other means -- rebating any increased sales-tax revenue.
Someday our courts might catch on to this hustle, but in the meantime, Ritter can do right by slapping a veto on SB 173 and calling it what it is: yet another attempt to subsidize the wealthy.
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