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Colorado taxpayers deck 'TABOR'

Investment in public services trumps tax rebates in election

The AFT is celebrating its most significant victory against the anti-government establishment to date: suspension of Colorado’s so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). The 1992 constitutional amendment restricts government and requires any “excess” revenue to be returned to taxpayers.

Voters endorsed suspending the law for five years, which will allow the state to keep and spend the revenue it collects for public structures—programs, services and infrastructure, including the workforce.

“Colorado voters sent a clear message: High-quality public services matter and are essential to the health, safety, education and prosperity of Colorado citizens,” says AFT president Edward J. McElroy.

Colorado Federation of Public Employees (CFPE) president Jo Romero is optimistic that the temporary hold voters placed on TABOR will extend to more thoughtful dialogue about the state’s priorities.

“The election was about maintaining what we have and moving forward,” she says. “This puts us back to where we were before the recession.”

But without the recession, Coloradans might still be spellbound by TABOR. The recession, exacerbated by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, accelerated the law’s deleterious effects. Revenue plunged 16 percent and policymakers were forced to cut spending by more than $1 billion.

As TABOR was tightening its tentacles around the state’s finances, causing service cuts and workforce reductions, there was increasing demand for public services, programs and innovations that could respond to such civic policy priorities as homeland security and West Nile Virus prevention, Romero says.

Though the name suggests it’s a pro-taxpayer policy, it is far from that, according to critics.

TABOR is an instrument solely intended to incrementally reduce the size and scope of government programs and services over an extended period of time.

Voters’ endorsement of the measure translates into a willingness by taxpayers to forgo a $491 average rebate over five years, Romero notes.

The CFPE has been a leading voice for TABOR reform, which got its footing in early 2001 when the law’s ratcheting-down effects became very pronounced.

From the onset of the recession, when state revenues fell, the baseline for which future spending growth would be determined also fell because of TABOR’s restrictive formula, and the law’s effects were accelerated.

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SERVICES IN THE PATH OF TABOR'S DESTRUCTION

With the exception of prisons, virtually no public service escaped Colorado’s so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) intact.

In preparation for voter rejection of the ballot initiative that suspends the law for 5 years, Henry Sobanet, director of the Office of State Planning and Budgeting, sent a memo to Gov. Bill Owens outlining additional cuts that would be necessary to balance the fiscal year 2006-07 budget.

The memo, sent in October, shows the breadth of TABOR’s deconstruction of public services in Colorado.

Among the extensive list of recommended cost-saving actions: eliminate or reduce funding for senior services, including Meals on Wheels, transportation assistance and dental care; reduce in-patient mental health services and eliminate oversight of mental health providers; eliminate programs for crime victims; eliminate the poison control hot line; discontinue state-regulated egg inspections; and reduce funding for workforce development centers.

Sobanet also noted that higher education funding would likely suffer a minimum 20 percent funding reduction—absorbing cuts that could not be levied against the Department of Corrections for public safety reasons.

“The status quo menu of services and protections provided by [Colorado] are incompatible with the ‘ratchet-down’ provision of TABOR,” Sobanet wrote. “While some of the cuts in recent years may not have affected the general public, this subsequent round of reductions would diminish public safety and result in higher tuition for families and reduced consumer protection and services to the elderly.”

The referendum passed. But as Coloradans cast their votes in favor of good government that’s responsive to citizens’ needs, anti-government policymakers and organizations continue to push for constitutional spending-cap measures. In 2005, spending cap proposals were introduced in 23 states, including: Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Anti-government proponents are selling the initiatives in a variety of ways. John Schettle, a member of AFT-Wisconsin’s Physicians and Dentists Association, says TABOR advocates in his state are using the public’s increasing frustration with property taxes as leverage.

AFT locals are ready for the fight—and will be asking members to voice their opposition to policymakers.

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