We certainly have our policy differences with Jared Polis in his public capacity as Colorado's Democratic governor. But it's hard to knock his longtime role in the private sector as a successful internet entrepreneur. Like countless other movers and shakers in the marketplace, he didn't just make himself a lot of money; he also created wide-ranging opportunity for many others through business investments as well as charity.

News last week that Polis had paid negligible income tax in the years leading up to his election as governor was the talk of the water cooler. But a scandal it wasn't. Not only was he legally entitled to reduce his tax bill through the means provided in the tax code, but more to the point, he qualified for those provisions in the code by using his money in ways that did society a lot of good.

As reported by The Gazette and our news affiliate Colorado Politics, investigative website ProPublica obtained tax records showing Polis paid no federal income tax from 2013 to 2015. He paid an effective rate of 8.2% from 2010 to 2018. That is a much lower rate than the 19% paid by someone who earned $45,000 in 2018, as ProPublica pointed out in its own report last week revealing its findings.

Polis' tax records show he in part made use of tax breaks for businesses he invested in that yielded little or no income. He won't be taxed on those businesses that grew in value until they are sold. For those that lost market value, he got to write off some of his other income against his overall taxes.

This is of course long-standing policy, and the net effect is it helped Polis invest in ventures that could well advance innovative goods or services while also creating new jobs — even though he got no immediate return on his investment.

ProPublica also charged that Polis used philanthropic deductions to keep his taxes "enviably low" for years, including charitable donations to causes that "served to promote him, blurring the lines between charity and campaigning."

A Polis spokeswoman countered, "His philanthropy is not and has never been motivated by receiving a tax write-off, and to state otherwise is not only inaccurate but fabricating motives and intent and cynical in its view of charity."

Fair enough, but even viewed, less (ahem) charitably, Polis' philanthropy yielded a social benefit — regardless of his motive. And he hardly would be the first politician to pick up some positive PR from his own good deeds.

Speaking of motives, ProPublica's aim in all this seems to be to reinforce the shopworn and false narrative of progressive politics — that the rich get richer at the expense of the general public. It's worth noting ProPublica is regarded as left leaning by media-bias tracking sites like allsides.com, adfontesmedia.com and mediabiasfactcheck.com. And it has not disclosed how it got a hold of the personal tax records. Hacking, leaking or stealing them would be illegal. ProPublica explains on its site only that it "did not itself remove the information from the control of the IRS or solicit anyone else to do so..." The records for Polis were part of a trove of such data obtained earlier this year on prominent, wealthy tax filers including politicians.

Given its leftward skew, ProPublica' Nov. 4 report unsurprisingly relies on a left-leaning advocacy group for some cut-and-paste commentary to help flesh out its findings. A tax expert with a group called Americans for Tax Fairness tells ProPublica that Polis' tax bill is a "giveaway."

"What is the public getting from it?" said the group's Bob Lord. "This really, really rich politician gets to shelter his income while his investments grow and doesn't pay tax on it until he sells."

He claimed Polis could "dodge the tax system forever" by hanging on to his investments, while his heirs won't owe income taxes on their growth.

Except, he's not dodging the system. On the contrary, he and all other beneficiaries of such tax policies are playing entirely by the rules. Moreover, there is no "giveaway." These taxpayers aren't taking a dime from others. They are paying less into the federal Treasury in exchange for creating wealth and spreading it around — while receiving little or no income from it.

Without a doubt, the current U.S. tax code is a labyrinth and, for many, a nightmare. It needs retooling. Plenty of policy makers across the political spectrum have argued over the years that even radical change is in order. Don't forget it was Polis himself who last summer called — earnestly, if somewhat theoretically — for an end to the income tax altogether.

But to say it benefits the rich at the expense of the poor is hollow, dogma-driven political rhetoric.

The familiar line from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story has it that, "The very rich ... are different from you and me." That certainly seems true in at least one respect: The wealthy usually choose to invest their money in ways that benefit "you and me," i.e., everyone else. To the extent the tax code helps them do that, all the better.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

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