On the March 21 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show, guest host and Independence Institute president Jon Caldara mischaracterized Referendum C as a “forever tax increase.” Similarly, a March 21 Rocky Mountain News article echoed the same conservative talking point by calling Referendum C a “tax.” In fact, the 2005 referred ballot measure neither raised any then-existing tax rates nor imposed any additional taxes.

The News' mischaracterization occurred in an article by staff reporter Lynn Bartels about forecasts for slower economic growth and the effect on state finances:

Colorado's economy will continue to grow next year, but the pace will slow a bit, affecting the state's revenue projections, according to two forecasts given to lawmakers Tuesday.

Colorado's general fund will post 6.1 percent revenue growth in the 2006-07 fiscal year that ends June 30, predicted Todd Saliman, the budget director for Gov. Bill Ritter. He expects a 5 percent increase in 2007-08.

Mike Mauer, the chief legislative economist, concurred with the slower growth rate expectation.

[...]

The two projections were nearly identical in some cases:

For example, the legislative economists estimated the Referendum C collection over five years at $5.37 billion. The governor's office estimated it at $5.35 billion.

The original projection, when Ref C was put on the 2005 ballot, was that the tax would bring in $3.7 billion over five years.

Voters approved it to help the state recover from a recession that led to revenue deficits and cuts of nearly $1 billion.

Similarly, on the March 21 broadcast of The Mike Rosen Show, Caldara falsely characterized Referendum C as “a forever tax increase.” Caldara claimed that “Referendum C not only takes all your refund money that would have gone back to you thanks to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, but after five years it permanently -- permanently -- jacks up the state's budget. It is a forever tax increase, not a five-year tax increase.” Caldara made the same mischaracterization on the March 6 broadcast of his own Newsradio 850 KOA show when he asserted, referring to Referendum C, that voters were told in 2005 that “in order to save higher ed we had to pass this massive tax increase.”

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Referendum C permits the state “to retain and spend all state revenues” through 2010, suspending the revenue and spending restrictions imposed on state coffers by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). Conservatives such as Caldara and former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) -- now chairman of the anti-tax organization FreedomWorks -- have mischaracterized Referendum C as "[t]he largest tax hike in Colorado state history."

During the March 21 broadcast, Caldara also repeated the falsehood that Referendum C was “sold” to the public as costing “only $3.7 billion.” As Colorado Media Matters has pointed out (here and here), the $3.7 billion figure Caldara cited was explicitly described as an “estimate” in the 2005 Colorado Blue Book.

From the March 21 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show, with guest host Jon Caldara:

CALDARA: '05: I tried to put out the warning flares on Referendum C. They said it was going to cost 3.7 b-b-billion dollars of your tax dollars. That was the money you were going to get back in tax refunds. They said, “No, we -- we need this. We need this for education. We need it for higher ed. We, we need it and it's gonna cost you only 3.7 billion dollars.” And the way they calculated it, it was supposed to be, you know, just 70 bucks a person, or something like that. Well, today we now find out that the Ref. C forecasts -- as I thought it would be -- 1.6 billion dollars extra. Wow. Referendum C will bring about 1.6 billion dollars more than originally forecast. Gasp, I say. I'm shocked. Surprised. The chief economist for the nonpartisan legal -- legislative legal council -- said the forecast shows that instead of 3.7 billion dollars -- what it was sold at -- Referendum C will take 5.4 billion dollars over the next five years of money that would have been returned to you and me for our own special purposes. Hmm. Oh, by the way, when you -- when you read in the paper on Ref. C and you hear that this is a five-year plan, I want you to stand up and go: “Lying! These guys are lying!” It is not a five-year plan. It is a forever plan. Referendum C not only takes all your refund money that would have gone back to you thanks to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, but after five years it permanently -- permanently -- jacks up the state's budget. It is a forever tax increase, not a five-year tax increase. Don't buy this silliness when they say it's a five-year thing.