The news that Colorado voters suspended their Taxpayers' Bill of Rights put TABOR proponents in the Badger State on the defensive. TABOR-touting fiscal conservatives in Wisconsin scrambled to deflect criticism away from the bedrock principles that uphold TABOR in both Colorado and Wisconsin.
State Rep. Frank Lasee, R-Bellevue, who authored the current TABOR legislation, went so far as to say 'the passing of Referendum C shows that TABOR works' because it gave the people the final say in the budget process. Witness the contrast between Lassee's remarks and that of his Colorado counterpart, anti-TABOR ringleader, Colorado Assembly Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Denver, who said after the passing of Referendum C, 'It frankly will eliminate TABOR ... TABOR is as good as dead.'
TABOR died suddenly. It was just a handful of years ago that TABOR was being labeled as 'the greatest tax policy in the history of democracy.' Colorado Governor Bill Owens, the man regarded as the father of TABOR, was, like his creation, riding high. In 2002, the flagship of conservative thought, The National Review, christened Owens 'Governor of the Year,' paving the way for potential presidential ambitions in 2008. Even eyebrows of TABOR skeptics were raised in the first ten years of TABOR's existence when Colorado moved from a mediocre No. 33 in the nation in job growth to a meteoric No. 6. Yet, Colorado's economic ascension was the result of expansions in tech-heavy and telecom sectors, so when the boomtimes busted, so did the myths of TABOR's infallibility.
So why'six years after TABOR's heyday'was it a victim of death by democracy? Exhibit A is the demise of Colorado's higher education system. Historically, public support of the university system in Colorado has never been as high as Wisconsin's. But the extent to which TABOR starved schools like University of Colorado-Boulder and Colorado State is likely to seem comical 20 or 30 years from now.
Put simply, state support for higher education plummeted from 17 percent of the general budget in 1992 to 10.6 percent in 2004. Had TABOR continued to run its course, state funding would have reached zero by 2015. So what, as UW students know all too well, is the result of a tight-fisted state? Higher tuition and fewer classes. The problem was so bad that public universities in Colorado did not just drop classes, but majors. That is why, as a Colorado native, I am a Badger and not a Buffalo.
A second reason Referendum C passed was that even the most devout fiscal conservatives need a functioning local government. After TABOR, county and city government had difficulties fixing potholes and coming up with the money to keep swimming pools and parks open every day in the summer. TABOR did not jut succeed in preventing state government from expanding, but it introduced a cannibalistic budget process in which municipal governments fought each other for the money to provide basic services. It is not surprising that the loudest opposition from TABOR came from the rural areas of the states. These rural communities, which are conservative clich??s in every way, hated TABOR. As one rancher who lives to the west of the Rockies noted, 'I'm as conservative as it gets, but darn it I need roads to drive on!'
Most fundamentally, TABOR made life inconvenient. In my hometown, opposition to TABOR came down to the fact that the state had to shut down a Department of Motor Vehicles office, leading to the joke, 'What do we hate more than standing in line for 45 minutes at the damn DMV? Having to drive an extra hour to do it!'
Not only was TABOR an inconvenience to most Coloradans, but also it was an actual danger to others. Consider that Colorado's national ranking for access to prenatal care dropped dramatically from No. 23 in 1990 to No. 48 in 2004. Colorado is now last in on-time child-immunization rates; in 1995, the vaccination rate was well above the national average.
Some of these grievances could be redressed if TABOR proved it could do what it promised'give money back to the people. But it couldn't. After nearly having their public health, education and road systems destroyed what did Colorado citizens get in return? The average citizen, according to the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting, received $95 in sales tax credit'not quite worth it.
TABOR is an extreme proposition. And although Wisconsin's version is a bit more watered down, before we run towards TABOR, the people of Wisconsin need to understand why Colorado, after a 13-year engagement, dumped TABOR.
