The Trouble with TABOR

Our state of Colorado suffers from a unique affliction — a constitutional “bug” which drains the life from the systems that sustain our communities. Schools, roads and bridges are all suffering because the “Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights” (aka TABOR) prohibits us from investing in them, even when the economy is strong and we have the money to do so. The cure? Leadership, coalition-building and sheer grit.

The good news is that after years of TABOR’s stranglehold on our state budget, business and community leaders across the political spectrum, including the Denver Metro Chamber, are feeling the pain and seeking strength in numbers to overcome the restrictive law. The bad news is that State Senate Republicans are taking a hard-line stance and have pledged to kill legislation that would address what ails us even though their obstruction is out of step with many of their constituents.

So why waste political capital when opponents have dug in their heels? Because it’s time the public understood the real trouble with TABOR, and how it creates critical deficits in funding for education, transportation and mental health care in our state.

Don’t like higher college tuition and crippling student debt? According to the University of Colorado’s Foundation webpage, “the State of Colorado provides less than 6 percent of the University’s operating budget, down from 25 percent in 1990.” These deep cuts are illustrated by the “Pacman effect.”

In this pie chart of our state budget, a growing portion of spending (the blue, red and yellow slices) is mandated or predetermined by case load. As these slices get bigger, they crush everything else between their Pacman jaws. Higher Ed, Capital Construction, Transportation and other spending priorities become reduced to tiny slices. Why not grow the pie? Because TABOR requires the state to refund all revenue in excess of a flawed “population plus inflation” formula cap.

Don’t like the 50 year lease of US 36 tolling lanes to a private Australian company? I’ll bet you didn’t know TABOR drove that decision (see what I did there?) With plans in the works for the managed lane on US36 polling was done to see if the taxpayers would approve a tax to pay for it. They said no. In fact, they said “hell, no.” We could all agree that several additional mistakes compromised the public private partnership negotiations and rollout, but the fact remains that we would not have had to enter into the agreement at all if our legislators had the authority to levy a tax in the first place.

These are just a couple of examples. Another is Colorado’s “negative factor”, a euphemism for its failure to fully meet voter mandated funding levels for K-12 education. Mental health is another area where Colorado falls down. The Aurora theater shootings prompted the first budget increases in mental health after decades of cuts. In 2010, Colorado ranked 31st among the states in per capita funding.

We are likely to see at least a partial fix to our TABOR troubles on the November ballot this year. A bipartisan coalition called Building a Better Colorado is drafting language that would remove the TABOR revenue cap — whether temporarily or permanently is yet to be decided. Voters should take a long hard look at what TABOR is actually costing us, and decide whether the trade-offs are worth it.