March 31, 2005
Colorado runs away from TABOR as we run toward it
By Jay Bullock
Frank Lasee (now a blogger! Go say "Hi!" and leave polite comments) is planning to unveil his new and improved Taxpayers' "Bill of Rights" (TABOR) on April 15. This is, apparently, more for tax-day symbolism than for your standard Friday news dump.
The Washington Post (free registration required), though, tells us how the Colorado folks--prominently, even Republican Governor Bill Owens--are backing away from their own TABOR:
"Gov. Bill Owens (R) has been crisscrossing the country for years promoting the virtues of this state's strict constitutional limits on government spending. He has repeatedly urged other states to adopt restrictions of their own, based on Colorado's ‘Taxpayer Bill of Rights’ amendment, known here as TABOR.
“But this summer, Owens says, he'll be traversing his own mountainous state pushing the opposite message. Midway through his second term, Owens is working to persuade Coloradans to suspend the limits he championed and let the state government spend $3 billion more in tax money than TABOR would allow.”
Why the about-face? Think Progress has a good run-down of how low the Mile-High state has sunk:
*In Colorado, the ratio of teacher salaries to average private-sector earnings is lower than in any other state. Since the passage of TABOR, the high school graduation rate has fallen 6 percent.
*In Colorado, tuition has shot through the roof (.pdf). The state ranks 48th in the country in state funding for higher education per $1,000 of income.
*TABOR has severely limited funding for health care in Colorado. The number of the state's low-income children who lack health insurance has skyrocketed from 15 percent in 1992 to 27 percent in 2003, despite declines nationally.
*Over a 44-month period ending in December 2004, Colorado hemorrhaged 68,000 jobs, a decline of 3.0 percent. In every other Mountain state - none of which has TABOR - the median job growth has been 4.5 percent during the same period.
Other Republican governors besides Owens are also pushing tax raises in their states, in part, at least because of George W. Bush; the Post again:
"The federal cuts have been very difficult for states to manage," said economist Bert Waisanen of the National Conference of State Legislatures. "Governors have to run programs like Medicaid, No Child Left Behind, homeland security. But there is less and less money coming from Washington to pay the bills.”
Let me remind everyone that Wisconsin currently gets back less than 85¢ per dollar we send in to the feds. As I've noted before, NCLB underfunding leaves us $2 million short, as well.
Rich Eggleston over at Blog TABOR points us to a Green Bay News Chronicle commentary that drives this point home:
“The proposed Taxpayer Bill of Rights would take spending decisions out of the hands of government and put it in the hands of voters. Excuse me, but aren't those decisions the reason we have a Legislature? If we're going to make the decisions, who needs them? We could probably save more money by getting rid of 132 legislators than we ever could with a stupid law.
“Me, I call TABOR the ‘stop me before I tax again!’ law. It's our legislators admitting they can't do their jobs.”
So, here's my question: Why are some of our elected officials--apparently too weak to resist that taxin' jones!--pushing so hard for a measure being abandoned by those who have it? To most bloggers I meet, including myself, I say, "Don't quit your day job." Frank Lasee, though? Maybe he should consider it.
(Jay Bullock maintains the blog folkbum's rambles and rants.)
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