TABOR Defeated at Polls in Clean Sweep
Voters in Maine, Nebraska and Oregon Reject Effort to Cut Public Services

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Voters in Maine, Nebraska and Oregon soundly rejected so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) initiatives yesterday, handing another decisive defeat to the well-financed but unpopular effort to restrict state funding for public services.

“Voters from coast to coast saw through the false promises and rejected this gimmick,” said Edward J. McElroy, president of the American Federation of Teachers.  “Americans have once again sent the clear message that well-funded, high-quality public services are essential to the health, safety and prosperity of states and communities.”

TABOR is a state constitutional amendment that requires government spending to adhere to a rigid formula. Only one state has passed TABOR—Colorado, in 1992.  TABOR had such a devastating impact on public services there that disenchanted Coloradans across the political spectrum voted last November to suspend the measure. 

“Voters learned the lesson of Colorado, where TABOR was a proven failure,” McElroy noted.  “TABOR may sound appealing at first, but it doesn’t solve any problems.  It just creates new ones, such as overcrowded schools, soaring college tuitions, crumbling roads, and shortages in emergency response and healthcare services.”

This year, TABOR supporters, led by New York real estate developer Howard Rich, spent millions of dollars in an effort to pass TABOR in more than 20 states; yet they were unsuccessful in every one.  In five states—Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Oklahoma—courts threw out TABOR petitions, citing fraud or other petition irregularities.  The fact that many TABOR campaigns hired out-of-state firms and individuals to collect petition signatures contributed to problems.

“Out-of-state TABOR financiers had big bankrolls and they used all sorts of tricks, but they never had real grass-roots support,” added McElroy. “As a result, voters gave TABOR the resounding ‘no’ it deserved. Let’s hope that TABOR backers finally have gotten the message: Americans don’t want to see public services weakened.  They want what most citizens are already getting—high-quality public services at a fair and reasonable cost.” 

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