{"id":1581758,"date":"2022-08-01T05:03:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T09:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1581758"},"modified":"2022-08-01T05:03:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T09:03:47","slug":"these-colorado-dems-say-theyre-running-to-help-working-families-they-voted-for-new-taxes-amid-rising-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/these-colorado-dems-say-theyre-running-to-help-working-families-they-voted-for-new-taxes-amid-rising-inflation\/","title":{"rendered":"These Colorado Dems Say They\u2019re Running To Help \u2018Working Families.\u2019 They Voted for New Taxes Amid Rising Inflation."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthese-colorado-dems-say-theyre-running-to-help-working-families-they-voted-for-new-taxes-amid-rising-inflation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1581758&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/\">Democrats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">State legislators Brittany Pettersen and Yadira Caraveo backed gas-tax hike, new &#8216;fees&#8217; on delivery, rideshares<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tColorado state senator Brittany Pettersen (D.) and Colorado state representative Yadira Caraveo \/ leg.colorado.gov\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/collin-anderson\/\" title=\"Posts by Collin Anderson\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Collin Anderson<\/a> \u2022 August 1, 2022 5:00 am<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A pair of Colorado Democrats say they&#8217;re running for Congress to help &#8220;working families.&#8221; During their time in the state legislature, they voted to create new taxes as Colorado families faced rising inflation.<\/p>\n<p><span>In June 2021, state legislators <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/leg.colorado.gov\/content\/sb21-260vote733061\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>Brittany Pettersen<\/span><\/a><span> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/leg.colorado.gov\/content\/sb21-260vote54dd49\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>Yadira Caraveo<\/span><\/a><span> voted for legislation that increased Colorado&#8217;s gas tax and imposed new fees on deliveries and Uber and Lyft rides. The vote came as inflation surged in the Centennial State under President Joe Biden. By the end of June 2021, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/pet\/hist\/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&#038;s=EMM_EPMMU_PTE_SCO_DPG&#038;f=W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>average price<\/span><\/a><span> for a gallon of gas in Colorado rose above $3.60, a nearly 50 percent increase from just six months prior. That same month, consumer prices <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/07\/13\/consumer-price-index-increases-5point4percent-in-june-vs-5percent-estimate.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>increased 5.4 percent<\/span><\/a><span> from a year earlier, the then-largest monthly gain in nearly 13 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Now, Pettersen <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pettersen4co\/status\/1511525210670862336?s=20&#038;t=kYlDB4mEJfPnAIJJL_wzYQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>says<\/span><\/a><span> she&#8217;s running for Congress to focus on &#8220;improving the lives of working families,&#8221; while Caraveo <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YadiraCaraveo\/status\/1523767268991143937?s=20&#038;t=3e9PhtbSe7Yh5FVYxTDw-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>says<\/span><\/a><span> she launched her own congressional bid to &#8220;get real things done for working families.&#8221; Pettersen and Caraveo&#8217;s state legislative records, however, say otherwise. Those records could place them in political peril as voters increasingly sour on Biden&#8217;s economy and look for relief from the record-high inflation seen under the Democratic president.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The American public&#8217;s outlook on the state of the economy, for example, is the worst it&#8217;s been in more than a decade, according to a July <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/07\/18\/politics\/cnn-poll-joe-biden-economy-us\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>CNN poll<\/span><\/a><span>. In Colorado, just 31 percent of voters <a href=\"https:\/\/civiqs.com\/results\/approve_president_biden?annotations=true&#038;uncertainty=true&#038;zoomIn=true&#038;home_state=Colorado\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">approve<\/a> of Biden, compared with 54 percent who disapprove. Biden won the state by 14 points in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Pettersen and Caraveo&#8217;s votes to raise taxes amid inflationary concerns show that the pair of Democrats are &#8220;out of touch&#8221; with average Coloradans, Advance Colorado Institute president Michael Fields told the <\/span><i><span>Washington Free Beacon<\/span><\/i><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;These fees are getting out of control. \u2026 Why are we raising fees and taxes when we&#8217;re heading into a recession and inflation is so high?&#8221; Fields said. &#8220;I just think the whole thing is these Democrats being out of touch.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Neither Pettersen nor Caraveo returned requests for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Colorado Senate Bill 260, which both Pettersen and Caraveo supported last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/2021\/06\/17\/gas-delivery-fees-colorado-transportation-bill\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">included<\/a> a gas-tax hike of 2 cents per gallon, a 27-cent fee on deliveries, and a 30-cent fee on Uber and Lyft rides, all of which came into effect in July. When gas prices in the state went on to surpass $4.20 a gallon in April, however, Pettersen <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/leg.colorado.gov\/bills\/hb22-1351\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>sponsored a bill<\/span><\/a><span> to delay the gas-tax hike to April 2023\u2014just four months after the upcoming November election.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But Pettersen did not delay the state&#8217;s new delivery and rideshare fees, even as inflation neared 40-year highs. Fields criticized that decision, arguing that if Pettersen and other Democrats felt that Colorado families needed relief from one of the new fees, they also needed relief from the others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;If a two-cent gas increase this year was too much for people, why wouldn&#8217;t 27- and 30-cent fee increases also at least be delayed?&#8221; Fields told the <\/span><i><span>Free Beacon<\/span><\/i><span>. &#8220;It comes out of our pocket either way.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Caraveo has attempted to argue that she &#8220;work[s] hard to save families money&#8221; by highlighting Colorado&#8217;s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), which sets a cap on how much money the state can keep in a given year. When it exceeds that cap, the state sends money back to the public\u2014this year, for example, Coloradans are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpr.org\/2022\/07\/27\/tabor-checks-what-to-know\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>set to receive<\/span><\/a><span> a $750 refund. Despite Caraveo <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YadiraCaraveo\/status\/1546522484433833984?s=20&#038;t=iqP5WcjcMTEE43CAR7bdsQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>touting that refund<\/span><\/a><span> in a July tweet, the Democrat <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190725061018\/caraveoforcolorado.com\/platform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>pledged to end TABOR<\/span><\/a><span> on her now-deleted state-level campaign site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;TABOR has handcuffed Colorado and keeps the state from using the funds it collects for the betterment of its citizens,&#8221; Caraveo&#8217;s site read. &#8220;Without the elimination of TABOR, funding in this state will always fall short of our needs.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Both Pettersen and Caraveo joined the state legislature in 2019 and went on to take a number of controversial votes. During their first year as lawmakers, both Democrats <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/people-are-dying-co-law-enforcement-officials-blame-overdose-spike-on-dem-passed-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>voted<\/span><\/a><span> to make the possession of four grams or less of fentanyl\u2014equivalent to 13,000 deadly doses\u2014a misdemeanor instead of a felony. Two years later, in 2021, Pettersen and Caraveo <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/these-colorado-dems-voted-to-reduce-the-states-felony-murder-penalty-amid-homicide-spike\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>voted to weaken<\/span><\/a><span> the state&#8217;s penalty for felony murder as Denver experienced a near-record spike in homicides.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Pettersen and Caraveo both ran unopposed in the state&#8217;s June primary elections and in November will face Republicans Erik Aadland and Barbara Kirkmeyer, respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats State legislators Brittany Pettersen and Yadira Caraveo backed gas-tax hike, new &#8216;fees&#8217; on delivery, rideshares  Colorado state senator Brittany Pettersen (D.) and Colorado state representative Yadira<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1581758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1581758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1581758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1581758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1581758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}