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October 24, 2007 08:19 PM UTC

Springs Gazette: TABOR Sucks!

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols


Wow. The conservative Colorado Springs Gazette declares once, but certainly not for all, that TABOR is a disaster:

TABOR doesn’t work. TABOR never has worked. TABOR never will work, and it’s hurting us.

The “Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights” had such a nice ring to it that recession-plagued voters opted for it in 1992. Recessions often breed radical politics and so it was with TABOR, which had such enormous unforeseen consequences that ultimately it took another ballot measure, Referendum C in 2005, to offset the damage.

TABOR was the creation of El Paso County Commissioner Douglas Bruce. It is based on the notion that one can devise a formula for government spending based on inflation and growth and just walk away, leaving the automatic pilot to do the work.

Trouble is, governing is always more complicated than that. The further trouble is that even though various El Paso County Republicans have distanced themselves from Bruce, they’ve all made TABOR a part of their political catechism, and they don’t have the courage to say that the TABOR emperor ruling us all has no clothes.

El Paso County has, by far, the lowest taxes of any of Colorado’s big counties, yet new businesses are not stampeding to our door.

Tom Zwirlein, a professor in the College of Business at UCCS and director of the Southern Colorado Economic Forum, said “I think it’s definitely hurting our economic development.”

This month, Zwirlein delivered some bad news: For a few years now, Colorado Springs has been hemorrhaging $60,000-a-year jobs. Zwirlein said the city’s Economic Development Corp. is hamstrung because there are so few incentives it can offer to prospective new businesses, “and it all goes back to TABOR.”…

…Bruce has portrayed the de-TABORings as the work of big-spending liberals. But Colorado’s fire districts are run by guys with gun racks in their pickups. They just want to put out a few fires. They’re not liberals. They simply couldn’t make TABOR work.[Pols emphasis]

That last point could spell big trouble for Republicans who have continued to try to paint Democrats as “tax and spend liberals” when the truth is quite the opposite. With the national budget bursting at the seams under Republican control and a local economy still handcuffed by TABOR – a Republican creation – the GOP may need some new talking points soon.

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12 thoughts on “Springs Gazette: TABOR Sucks!”

  1. Tabor is gutting higher ed.  Because of Tabor we have a mishmash of conflicting constitutional provisions–which don’t work.  Government by plebicite seems like a good idea, but it gives us monstrosities like A41.

    Tabors single issue provision almost guarantees it can not be reformed.

    Get it all out of the constitution: Tabor, 23 (maybe gallagher can stay) and While you are at it 41, and the minimum wage too.

    This isn’t a liberal or conservative view, you should not be able to ammend the constitution with a single 50% plebicite.

            1.   I hadn’t heard about this.  I take it he came home “empty handed.”  Didn’t he tell his fellow commissioners about the one he almost hooked but got away?

        2. Why have we given this bloated blunderbuss so much credibility and fear him so much.  It would be worth repealing TABOR just to see him implode.

  2. how dare them stupid taxpayers ask to have a bill of rights to curb government runaway spending. They’re far too ignorant to know what is best for them.
    That is what our elected officials are for. Don’t they know that?
    Oh wait, their bill of rights has been taken away from them. What am I thinking? All is good. Big brother is in complete control as it should be.
    Whew

  3. TABOR has caused additional unproductive expenditures, double books, slow market responses and long term economic harm.  It is amazing that while Russia has adopted free market logic, we have a fixed detailed rule that totally ignores market changes.

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