Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News state lawmakers. They continue with
the special session, the priority being working to address a
nearly eight hundred million dollar budget deficit, among other issues,
and joining.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Us on the KWA Commons Beard Health Hotline. As Republican
state Representative of District fifty five, he also serves on
the Joint Budget Committee. It's Rick Taggart, State Representative. Taggart,
thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Before we talk a little bit about what has taken
place in the special session. So far, We've gotten a
lot of opinions of how people feel of how we
got to this to begin with. Do you believe that
both federal and state level reasons are to blame for
the budget deficit?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yes, both are. I'm not sure the word ideus is blame,
but both have responsibility in this particular situation.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Representative, what ideas have been suggested that both sides at
least seem to be able to agree on if they
do it all to fill this budget gap.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That's a difficult one because I'm not sure I would
I'm not sure I would say that there has been
agreement on much of anything. I think if there is agreement,
the agreement is around the fact that the revenue shortfall
(01:24):
over eighteen months eighteen months, which is impacts both the
twenty four to twenty five budget and now the current
twenty five twenty six budget is in the neighborhood of
one point two billion dollars. But other than agreeing on that,
the actual strategies of how to approach that number and
(01:50):
correct the situation, there's a broad difference.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
As a super minority in this situation, what would you
have done different or maybe avoided in order to address
the major the budget deficit if you were in the majority.
Is there a frustration of Republicans not being heard or
ideas not being considered.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
That's a tough question, I think. I guess the way
I would answer that is we have known both sides
of the aisle. We have known that we have a
structural deficit in our budget for at least two, if
not three years, and if we're going to do something different,
(02:40):
I know I would have preferred and I know Senator
Barb Kirkmeyer, who sits on the Joint Budget Committee, that
we would have approached our structural deficit in these last
two years with more energy. For lack of a better word,
(03:05):
we only address the structural deficit this last year to
the tune of about three hundred million dollars. I would
have preferred, and Senator Kirkmeyer even even more so, that
that'd be more in the six hundred to eight hundred
million dollars and that would have given us some some
(03:28):
buffer going into a situation like this. Instead, we address
that more significantly with one time cash fund in interest savings,
which as I say, are one time and will not
(03:49):
be repeatable in this in making up twenty five twenty
six deficit or the twenty six twenty seven budget.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I want to move this forward, but I have to
ask when you say that some in your you know,
in the legislature were aware of this. But I'm getting
the sense did some of these some of the people
and maybe on the other side of the aisle of you,
did they not take it seriously? Did they ignore it?
Did they think they were going away or go away?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I think, well, nobody could have seen the exact impact
of HR one, so so it's it coming about here
first week of July certainly impacted things. But you know,
(04:47):
I think the legislature and I think the governor to
a certain extent, has gotten lured into the fact that
we've had rapidly growing economy through the early part of
this decade, and we had over three billion dollars of arpathons,
(05:10):
and so you know, it looked for all intense purposes
that you know, money was no object. And I'm not
sure folks really understood when we started to talk about
it in earnest last year in the JBC, and I
(05:32):
mean in earnest, I don't think a good number of
the General Assembly really understood how serious the structural deficit
had become.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Representative Taggart, with the little time we have left, when
we're looking at the bills that are before Governor Polis
right now, there's been allegations that some of the budget
measures actually violate TABOR and should actually be approved by voters.
Do you believe that is the case, and specifically, which
bills would you say violate TABOR in this way?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Well, anytime I don't have the numbers of the bills
in front of me, but anytime that we're doing further
taxation on on our businesses or and are the and
the citizens of Colorado we have to be considering their
(06:27):
their impact from a taxpayer bill rights standpoint. And the
two that stand out the most to me are the
QBI bill, which is uh aimed at small pass through businesses,
and the bill having to do with expand those countries
(06:55):
of international international business. And that one really troubles me.
Not only from a tabor standpoint. Both of them really
troubled me, but that one really troubles me because the
jurisdictions that have been expanded in that particular bill are
(07:15):
in our markets from somebody like me that ran a
multinational corporation that we do business in and I never
like to see a bill we're guilty as multinational companies
until we prove ourselves innocent. I just that just gets
(07:36):
under my skin. And in terms of the QBI situation,
which is the other one that troubles me pass through organizations,
I could not get people to understand that the income
from our businesses, we then by the percentage of what
(07:58):
we own player that on our federal and state income tax,
But that does not mean that we take that cash
out of the business. In most cases, we don't because
we're trying to reinvest or grow our business. I couldn't
get folks on the other side of the aisle to
even understand that concept. They just kept saying that we
(08:18):
were rich, and that's really troubling. But both of them
are our additional taxes and both of them should be
should be valid items.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Wrapping up with you, where do we go with here?
What are the answers? What's what's coming up next?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Well, the Joint Budget Committee we come back together on Thursday,
and if you recall one of the bills that we
did actually sent a bill one has to do with
the governors that.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Representative tag. Are you still there?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I guess not.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Well, do you know that the Joint Budget Committee will
have to reconvene on Thursday, and there's the possibility of
the special session wrapping up today or tomorrow will continue
following the latest that was Republican state Representative of District
fifty five. He also serves on the Joint Budget Committee.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It's Rick Tackard.
It is Colorado's Morning News state lawmakers. They continue with
the special session, the priority being working to address a
nearly eight hundred million dollar budget deficit, among other issues,
and joining.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Us on the KWA Commons Beard Health Hotline. As Republican
state Representative of District fifty five, he also serves on
the Joint Budget Committee. It's Rick Taggart, State Representative. Taggart,
thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Before we talk a little bit about what has taken
place in the special session. So far, We've gotten a
lot of opinions of how people feel of how we
got to this to begin with. Do you believe that
both federal and state level reasons are to blame for
the budget deficit?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yes, both are. I'm not sure the word ideus is blame,
but both have responsibility in this particular situation.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Representative, what ideas have been suggested that both sides at
least seem to be able to agree on if they
do it all to fill this budget gap.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That's a difficult one because I'm not sure I would
I'm not sure I would say that there has been
agreement on much of anything. I think if there is agreement,
the agreement is around the fact that the revenue shortfall
(01:24):
over eighteen months eighteen months, which is impacts both the
twenty four to twenty five budget and now the current
twenty five twenty six budget is in the neighborhood of
one point two billion dollars. But other than agreeing on that,
the actual strategies of how to approach that number and
(01:50):
correct the situation, there's a broad difference.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
As a super minority in this situation, what would you
have done different or maybe avoided in order to address
the major the budget deficit if you were in the majority.
Is there a frustration of Republicans not being heard or
ideas not being considered.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
That's a tough question, I think. I guess the way
I would answer that is we have known both sides
of the aisle. We have known that we have a
structural deficit in our budget for at least two, if
not three years, and if we're going to do something different,
(02:40):
I know I would have preferred and I know Senator
Barb Kirkmeyer, who sits on the Joint Budget Committee, that
we would have approached our structural deficit in these last
two years with more energy. For lack of a better word,
(03:05):
we only address the structural deficit this last year to
the tune of about three hundred million dollars. I would
have preferred, and Senator Kirkmeyer even even more so, that
that'd be more in the six hundred to eight hundred
million dollars and that would have given us some some
(03:28):
buffer going into a situation like this. Instead, we address
that more significantly with one time cash fund in interest savings,
which as I say, are one time and will not
(03:49):
be repeatable in this in making up twenty five twenty
six deficit or the twenty six twenty seven budget.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I want to move this forward, but I have to
ask when you say that some in your you know,
in the legislature were aware of this. But I'm getting
the sense did some of these some of the people
and maybe on the other side of the aisle of you,
did they not take it seriously? Did they ignore it?
Did they think they were going away or go away?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I think, well, nobody could have seen the exact impact
of HR one, so so it's it coming about here
first week of July certainly impacted things. But you know,
(04:47):
I think the legislature and I think the governor to
a certain extent, has gotten lured into the fact that
we've had rapidly growing economy through the early part of
this decade, and we had over three billion dollars of arpathons,
(05:10):
and so you know, it looked for all intense purposes
that you know, money was no object. And I'm not
sure folks really understood when we started to talk about
it in earnest last year in the JBC, and I
(05:32):
mean in earnest, I don't think a good number of
the General Assembly really understood how serious the structural deficit
had become.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Representative Taggart, with the little time we have left, when
we're looking at the bills that are before Governor Polis
right now, there's been allegations that some of the budget
measures actually violate TABOR and should actually be approved by voters.
Do you believe that is the case, and specifically, which
bills would you say violate TABOR in this way?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Well, anytime I don't have the numbers of the bills
in front of me, but anytime that we're doing further
taxation on on our businesses or and are the and
the citizens of Colorado we have to be considering their
(06:27):
their impact from a taxpayer bill rights standpoint. And the
two that stand out the most to me are the
QBI bill, which is uh aimed at small pass through businesses,
and the bill having to do with expand those countries
(06:55):
of international international business. And that one really troubles me.
Not only from a tabor standpoint. Both of them really
troubled me, but that one really troubles me because the
jurisdictions that have been expanded in that particular bill are
(07:15):
in our markets from somebody like me that ran a
multinational corporation that we do business in and I never
like to see a bill we're guilty as multinational companies
until we prove ourselves innocent. I just that just gets
(07:36):
under my skin. And in terms of the QBI situation,
which is the other one that troubles me pass through organizations,
I could not get people to understand that the income
from our businesses, we then by the percentage of what
(07:58):
we own player that on our federal and state income tax,
But that does not mean that we take that cash
out of the business. In most cases, we don't because
we're trying to reinvest or grow our business. I couldn't
get folks on the other side of the aisle to
even understand that concept. They just kept saying that we
(08:18):
were rich, and that's really troubling. But both of them
are our additional taxes and both of them should be
should be valid items.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Wrapping up with you, where do we go with here?
What are the answers? What's what's coming up next?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Well, the Joint Budget Committee we come back together on Thursday,
and if you recall one of the bills that we
did actually sent a bill one has to do with
the governors that.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Representative tag. Are you still there?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I guess not.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Well, do you know that the Joint Budget Committee will
have to reconvene on Thursday, and there's the possibility of
the special session wrapping up today or tomorrow will continue
following the latest that was Republican state Representative of District
fifty five. He also serves on the Joint Budget Committee.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It's Rick Tackard.
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