January 1998

Election '97 Ballot Measures Colorado: LP helps to derail $16 billion RTD tax increase The LP of Colorado helped slam the brakes on a proposed $16 billion tax increase by playing a key role in the opposition to a public transportation tax referendum. Colorado Libertarians -- including Larry Hoffenberg (center, holding sign) -- rallied against the proposed RTD tax hike. The tax -- which would have boosted Rural Transportation District [RTD] taxes by 67% to pay for a "light rail" train system -- was defeated by Colorado voters by a 58% to 42% margin on November 4th. "Vters spoke loudly and clearly," said Larry Hoffenberg, the party's Public Information Director. "[The tax] not only lost, it was soundly rejected." The proposed RTD tax would have cost Colorado taxpayers $200 a year for every family in Colorado for the next 35 years. Outspent 20 to one The LP and its allies won despite being outspent 20 to one, and despite the fact that most of the state's Republican and Democratic politicians supported the proposal. But Libertarians didn't back down. They formed a coalition with the Concerned Commuters of Colorado -- a statewide group fighting the tax -- and held press conferences, sponsored public rallies, and peppered the media with press releases. "We were major players in the fight against the RTD tax," said LP State Chair Sandra Johnson. And Libertarians took a hard-line position against the tax: Rather than spending more money, they urged that government-run mass transit be abolished entirely. "Everyone except the politicians and the entrenched bureaucracy stands to benefit from opening mass transit to healthy free-market competition," said Johnson before the vote. The LP played such a high profile role in the anti-RTD campaign that it was singled out for attacks, Hoffenberg noted. In fact, Linda Morton, the Republican mayor of Lakewood, "tried to demonize the opposition to [the tax] by crediting the Libertarian Party, not just once, but twice, as one of the leading critics" in an op-ed piece in the Denver Post, he said. Strategy backfired "It's easy to see how a pro-tax, pro-big-government, pro-urban-renewal Republican would want to criticize the Party of Principle. Sure looks like that strategy backfired," said Hoffenberg. Unfortunately, the lopsided defeat of the tax isn't keeping state bureaucrats from trying again, Hoffenberg said. "They are now touting [a new proposal called] Light Rail Lite," he said. "Just what part of NO -- no, make that 'HELL NO!' -- don't they understand?"

LP HOME | PREVIOUS ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE | TABLE OF CONTENTS