House Finance advances resolution asking courts to decide TABOR’s constitutionality after hours of testimony

The House Finance Committee voted to advance House Joint Resolution 10-23 to Committee on Appropriations after an extensive, contentious hearing featuring dozens of witnesses on both sides. The resolution directs the General Assembly to authorize the Committee on Legal Services to retain counsel and file suit in state court seeking a declaratory judgment on the constitutionality of Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution (the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, known as TABOR).

Sponsors Representative Javier Camacho and Representative Rob Garcia framed the measure as a narrow legal question: whether TABOR’s limits on legislative taxing and spending authority effectively deny the state a republican form of government as guaranteed by Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution. “This resolution does not repeal TABOR. It does not raise taxes,” Representative Camacho told the committee. “It asks only for a court to answer a constitutional question that has been avoided by the courts for decades.”

Proponents included school districts,…