Via Americans for Limited Government's daily news service comes this article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer regarding a TABOR-style proposal being debated in Ohio. The article features views from Colorado politicos on how well the Amendment has worked here.
Carrie Harmon, spokeswoman for Denver's Bell Policy Center, which has extensively studied TABOR, said Colorado's TABOR formula is too inflexible to react to changes in the economy. Her center floated a proposal last year that would scrap the inflation-plus-population formula and link the cap to personal income."We've already done all the accounting tricks we can do," she said. "There just is not enough money to fund essential services."
True, if you think every last thing the State gov does is 'essential.' Check out this bit of editorializing from the PD writer, Julie Carr Smyth:
According to state Office of Planning and Budgeting forecasts, Colorado revenue will not return to pre-2001 levels until the 2009-10 biennium, meaning government will have seen actual growth of zero percent in close to a decade."TABOR forces us to a recessionary level of spending essentially forever," said Plant.
The Ohio proposal establishes the same growth formula that has become problematic in Colorado.
It's not a bug, it's a feature. No problem as far as I'm concerned. But the best quote...
But former Joint Budget Committee Chairman Brad Young, a self-described conservative Republican, said TABOR limits devastate the state's ability to write budgets in hard times."I came to the conclusion that TABOR doesn't just stop government from growing, it actually shrinks government over time. That's the purpose," he said. "That eventually leads to direct democracy, to everybody for himself. It creates an impossible situation."
I had to reread that passage a couple of times and make sure Mr. Young is really arguing against TABOR. Shrinking government means direct democracy? An 'impossible situation'? Who elected that guy?
The more politicians twist themselves into rhetorical knots the more I like TABOR, and if these ominous news reports scare you, I can assure everyone that Colorado is a very pleasant place to live. Especially now after more than a decade of TABOR.
Posted by Walter at January 3, 2005 02:27 PMOkay, I'm still trying to wrap my head around what Young was trying to say there. It just doesn't freakin' work...
One of the things that I have a really tough time with when it comes to opponents of TABOR is that it isn't quite as restrictive as they say it is. The fact is, if they want or believe that they need more money, they can always come to the voters and ask for it. Since the people who hold the purse strings are the voters, this works beautifully to me--it may make for some tough decisions for the legislators, but it also helps ensure we never have the kind of budget crisis that made California such a mess over the last few years (a mess that has yet to be resolved).
Posted by: zombyboy at January 3, 2005 02:56 PMIt was a given once the Democrats took the state level in Colorado the first thing they would go for is the raping and destruction of TABOR because they continue to believe the average Joe does NOT know how to manage money, and they believe they do.
If anything happens in the State of Colorado in 2005 it must be the preservation and protection of TABOR, especially against the assaults by the parasitic Dems.
Posted by: James C. Hess at January 4, 2005 05:52 AM