Defanging the TABOR-Toothed Tiger

COLORADO

AFSCME members of Council 76 helped win an important victory here when 52 percent of voters suspended the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) that gave Big Business big rebates at the expense of vital public services. The vote frees about $3.7 billion in expected tax revenues to fund health care for low-income, disabled and elderly Coloradans, support public education, and fill such crucial jobs as firefighter, and corrections and police officers.

Speaking of the bipartisan coalition that produced the winning margin, President McEntee noted that "AFSCME contributed $160,000 to the field and mail programs, made more than 30,000 live and robo calls, knocked on 2,000 doors and posted 2,000 signs."

TABOR, enacted in 1992 as a constitutional amendment in Colorado, was one of the nation's strictest government-spending laws. Promoted nationwide by Republican conservatives, it limited spendable tax revenue to the previous year's level, adjusted for inflation and population. Any "surplus" had to be retured to taxpayers — a plan that saw Big Business rake in two-thirds of the so-called surplus before average taxpayers saw the remaining third. Colorado was forced to close playgrounds, parks and drivers' license bureaus; watch potholes grow large; and reduce higher-education funding by 31 percent. The state declined from 30th to last in the nation in average teacher salaries, to 49th in providing vaccinations to the children and to plain worst in the number of low-income children lacking health insurance.

All that damage occurred while TABOR was refunding more than $941 million (in 2000) to taxpayers! Gov. Bill Owens (R), once a supporter of the law, warned that unless it was rolled back for five years, the state would carve another $365 million from its already lean 2006 budget: Goodbye tuition grants, foster care funding and food banks.

The TABOR "time out" will not result in any new taxes or tax hikes. Instead, taxpayers have voted to put so-called surplus revenue back into communities to benefit families, an important lesson for Bush "compassionate conservatives" to hear as they continue to slash federal funding for health and education.

But TABOR look-alikes currently threaten Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. As McEntee declared, "We must use this Colorado victory as a template for bringing such initiatives down."