National TABOR campaign hinging on Colorado

Activists push weaker bills elsewhere but won't give inch here

Jim Tankersley, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 18, 2005 at midnight

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Anti-tax activists will descend on the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Va., next month, for a two-day "TABOR Summit."

Organizers say the agenda likely will include two key discussions: first,how to persuade states nationwide to adopt versions of Colorado's groundbreaking Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, most of them more flexible than the original; second, how to stop Coloradans from approving something surprisingly similar.

Colorado voters passed TABOR, which limits government growth, in 1992. It's considered the country's toughest spending limit.

States coast to coast are considering modified copies. The new TABORs aren't as strict. They return less money to taxpayers. They help bridge recessions, including minimizing the "ratchet effect," which slows government's rebound from economic downturns.

In Colorado, a coalition of lawmakers and business leaders is pushing a ballot measure this fall that would make the state's TABOR look a lot like these younger cousins.

If the new versions are good for everybody else, they ask, why can't we have one?

To which the activists respond: It's the symbolism, stupid.

"The tax-and-spending lobby wants to have a victory against TABOR," said Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute in Golden, who is leading the campaign against the ballot measure, "so they can run around the country and scare other states about the 'Colorado Experience.' "

Colorado lawmakers say TABOR's ratchet effect is about to choke the state's government. They estimate that they'll need to cut a cumulative $2 billion worth of state programs through 2010, while refunding $3.1 billion to taxpayers. Some fiscal conservatives say that will force lawmakers to spend more wisely.

Legislators and Gov. Bill Owens agreed this spring to ask voters to balance the budget by lifting TABOR limits for five years and giving up the projected $3.1 billion in refunds. The plan, which hits the November ballot as Referendum C, also eliminates the ratchet in the future.

Owens and Referendum C supporters say that the measure would help schools, roads and needy citizens and that it would give Colorado's TABOR flexibility other states already build in.

Limited-government groups nationwide, including top advocates for more flexible TABORs, are determined to beat them.

Most label Referendum C a massive tax increase because it takes expected refunds away. Some say it's an incomplete update to TABOR because the measure doesn't create a rainy-day fund.

Nearly all say even a symbolic hit to the flagship TABOR could sink the fleet nationwide.

Michael Keegan of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which promotes a ratchet-less TABOR to states, accused Owens of a TABOR "retreat" in an April policy paper. The governor's efforts, he wrote, "would surely make passage in other states more difficult and could very well jeopardize existing limits."

Owens said that misunderstands the referendum. "We're not changing TABOR," he said last week - and some Referendum C opponents concede the point.

TABOR foes in several other states have mined a different message from the ballot measure. The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., said Owens "is trying to convince his state's voters to do away with" Colorado's spending limits, in an April editorial opposing a Pennsylvania TABOR.

Nevada legislators killed a TABOR bill later that month. The Senate majority leader said he opposed it, according to The Associated Press, in part because Colorado's referendum sends "a strong message" TABOR isn't working.

Fiscal conservatives say it's a pivotal time for TABOR. More than a dozen states are debating versions of it, and proponents are pushing Congress to follow. But legislators tabled or killed the proposals in Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and other states this year.

The June TABOR Summit in Richmond will include sessions on "Preparing for the Opposition" and "Marketing the TABOR Message." Caldara will lead a discussion on "TABOR Battle Updates."

He and allies say their movement is thriving through adaptation.

Making TABOR more flexible isn't their first choice, they say, but some states have to. Some are more liberal. Some lack the citizen initiative process, which activists say is kinder to TABOR than legislators who dislike yielding spending power.

They also say that's no reason to change Colorado.

"Other states are doing (TABOR) differently," Caldara said, "because they don't have the political might to do it right."

Owens says that's hypocritical - and potentially destructive to the cause. If Referendum C fails, he said, government services will suffer and TABOR opponents will reform their ranks.

"The attacks will continue," he said, "until ultimately they break TABOR in Colorado."

Coloradans will decide for themselves Nov. 1. A movement will be watching.

Tweak our TABOR?

How Referendum C would change Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights if voters approve it in November:

• It would freeze state spending limits for five years. Economists predict that would let lawmakers spend $3.1 billion they otherwise would refund to taxpayers.

• It would eliminate the "ratchet effect," which slows government's rebound from recession, in the future.

• Spending limits based on growth and inflation would return after five years.

• Voters still would have to approve any tax increases.

About the series

• Monday: The Taxpayer's Bill of Rights is spreading nationwide, but all eyes remain on Colorado.

• Tuesday: This is not your father's TABOR. Other states' versions are more flexible and respond to recessions.

• Today: Why national activists don't want Colorado to make the TABOR changes they're selling elsewhere.

tankersleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5219

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