Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial

5/2/07 

      What started with a standing ovation is ending with the sound of silence. Some may recall the applause Gov. Bill Ritter received at a Chamber of Commerce dinner in Colorado Springs on the night he announced his support for a marginal reduction in business personal property taxes. It was symbolism over substance, we pointed out, given that only the smallest of small businesses would reap a benefit. But the chamber crowd, perhaps a little too eager to give a new governor the benefit of the doubt, stood and cheered, as if Ritter had ordered the tax’s repeal.

      Now, with the legislative session winding down, even this meager tax cut is dead, a victim, according to Tuesday’s Gazette, of a Democratic aversion to tax cuts and apathy on the part of business groups. Ritter’s lack of leadership on the issue was also a major factor. He got his standing ovation but never took the idea any further, either out of a lack of interest or a fear of clashing with fellow Democrats, whose mission is maximizing state revenues. Apparently, creating the pie-in-the-sky “energy economy” of tomorrow is more important to Ritter than improving the state’s business climate today.

      Some business groups just couldn’t get excited about fighting for a tax cut that would benefit so few. The Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, The Gazette pointed out, dropped its support for the proposal “because it felt changes were needed to benefit large businesses as well.”

      We agree that medium and large businesses also need tax relief. But part of a loaf is better than no loaf at all, in our view. If you can make a winning argument favoring tax relief for small business, you’re possibly one step closer to winning tax breaks for all businesses. And holding Ritter to his pro-business commitments is important, unless business intends to get steamrolled by union-friendly, regulation-happy Democrats.

      The governor’s only real concession to business this session was his veto of the union shop bill. But why would he do more, when he can earn standing ovations for empty gestures?