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July 26, 2005 08:00 AM UTC

TABOR Daddy and Big Brother

  • 28 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

The Rocky Mountain News has a story today about El Paso County Commissioner Doug Bruce, the founder of TABOR, and his belief that the government is – literally – out to get him.

It seems that Bruce had a car towed from outside his house because it had been sitting on the street for too long, which is a violation of a city ordinance that requires cars to be moved every 72 hours. The car was towed, and Bruce pulled strings to get it back without paying impound fees. Of course, it wasn’t his fault.

 

Bruce said the car was the latest victim of government officials’ vendetta against his budget-trimming mission. Bruce declined to say how long the car was parked in front of his house, with a “For Sale” sign after the transmission gave out.

A city ordinance requires cars to be moved every 72 hours.

“If it was there 50 years is not the issue,” Bruce said. “They were trying to snatch my car because they can sell cars they take off the street for a profit that goes into the police pension fund.”

Remember, this is the same guy who promised to donate his salary to charity if he was elected county commissioner, then tried to put it into a “charity” the rest of us call a campaign fund. Bruce certainly isn’t a beacon of personal accountability. But who can be personally accountable when the world is out to get you?

Bruce, who said government officials have been out to get him for 14 years because of his TABOR Amendment that limits government spending, sees the car incident as another example of retaliation.

Exactly! The Colorado Springs police department worked with anti-TABOR leaders around the state to make sure your car was impounded. You caught them red-handed, Doug!

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28 thoughts on “TABOR Daddy and Big Brother”

  4. I read “days in the legislature” as simply referring to the days he was there lobbying for TABOR and answering the slum loard charges to committees.

    And really – he was there – literally – every day of the session hand-holding legislators and lobbying special interests.

  5. Doug Bruce is everywhere at all times.  He sticks his nose in everyone’s business.  He’s at every meeting he can be at in the Springs and then in every meeting he can be at in Denver.  I’m not suprised people are out to “get him”.  At a meeting last year he handed out bumper stickers and said if anyone wanted their tires slashed they should put one on their car.  What can you do?

  6. “the founder of TABOR from his days in the legislature”

    How can that line be misread?  The libs behind this site usually have a hard time admitting when they have made a mistake.  Let’s see how they react to this.  Get the facts straight.

  7. Geez, you guys get so angry over little things sometimes. We meant that he lobbied TABOR’s passage through the legislature. We’ll reword it. I guess we’re out to get Doug Bruce, too.

  8. noway: Bruce did not lobby the legislature for TABOR.  That was put on the ballot through the initiative process and passed by the voters.  Also, he did not answer slum lord (not ‘loard’) charges to state legislative committees.  Those were violations of city ordinances.

  9. Alva, you are wrong.  TABOR was a citizen initiative, not a referendum submitted by the legislature.  The legislature had nothing to do with the passage of TABOR.

  10. then you have a different memory than me. Doug was there – trying to get support – from 90 to 92. a regular fixture. and yes – he was called to testify on the slum issues, but didn’t show.

    there is no question this was a citizen initiative. but really – we all remember who was propelling it.

  11. Wow – you guys have a hard time admitting when you’re wrong.  “From his days in the legislature” … there’s no way around it.  It’s amazing how little you know sometimes.  I’m no Bruce fan, but you guys show your agenda when you make mistakes like these.

  13. All these petty little arguments about whether or not he was “in” or “at” the legislature are silly.

    The heart of the issue is that Doug Bruce is, in fact, a scum bag.

    The good news is that the likelihood of him ever winning another elected office is low.

  14. Doug is paranoid because he is so like all the other single, never-married, dysfunctional idiots who live with their mommies.  This deterioration from wacko-zealot to paranoid maniac was predictable.  This guy needs some anti-psychotic meds.

  15. Ya’ll commenters are mistaken – Bruce was indeed lobbying the legislature. He put the measure on the ballot three times (’88, ’90, and ’92) through citizen initiative, but he also lobbied the legislature hard to get it done by referendum. And he saw a bit of success – Colorado Springs’s own Mike Bird put through a measure to cap spending increases in the Genereal Fund to 6% annually, hoping to head off the full TABOR vistory on the ballot. He failed though, so now both measures are in place, making things that much more complicated.

    But the point is that even though Bruce went through the citizen initiative process does not mean he didn’t also lobby.

  16. Didn’t live here during all the Tabor battles but the low tax burden Colorado has due to Tabor is one of the reasons people from the east and west move here. (good? bad?) All sensible people do their best to escape the out of control spending on the “poor”, the “children”, the “elderly”, etc… All good causes, but always used to open the endless spicket of spending by government on programs with marginal results and mostly serve to increase the roll of the government. I feel the frantic typing already getting ready to give me a lesson or two on Colorado history…Type on!

  18. tgmt – I thing you’re onto something.  Charlie Duke went round the bend in much the same manner.  God told him to quit the legislature while he was in the fetal position on the floor of his house in the Black Forest.  God later told him it was a mistake but the El Paso GOP wasn’t listening to God on that subject and wouldn’t let him fill a vacancy.

  19. Doug Bruce WAS at the legislature as a “citizen-lobbyist” to try to get them to pass various versions of the TABOR amendment before he took it to the citizens.

    I don’t believe any of his tax-cuts plans made it out of committee in the legislature though.

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