Topeka — Buses and briefings.
The fight over TABOR - the so-called taxpayer's bill of rights - has been low-key in Kansas lately, but is being waged publicly in Colorado.
In 1992, Colorado voters approved amending their constitution to include TABOR, which limits government spending increases to inflation plus population growth, and refunds to taxpayers revenue collected above that amount.
But facing a state budget crunch, Colorado voters in November will consider whether the government should be able to keep most of the extra tax revenue it collects. A companion referendum would allow the state to borrow up to $2.1 billion to fund transportation, capital improvement projects and local police and fire pensions.
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican and former strong supporter of TABOR, is pushing for passage of the questions, citing the state's budget problems.
Kansans on both sides of the issue are watching their neighbors with interest.
Alan Cobb, director of the Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which is pushing for TABOR in Kansas, said polls in Colorado indicated the referendums would fail and TABOR would remain as is.
- Experts differ on impact of Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (08-18-05)
- Critics warn Kansas away from Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (03-06-05)
- Economist pushes for Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (01-13-05)
- Simons: Taxpayer bill of rights has allure, but also many drawbacks (01-08-05)
- Kansas to begin 2005 in the black (01-05-05)
"The bottom line is the people who don't like TABOR don't like it because it works," Cobb said.
In Kansas, Americans for Prosperity plans to staff a booth at the Kansas State Fair next month and embark on a statewide bus tour to promote TABOR.
To be implemented in Kansas, TABOR would require a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate and then a majority vote in a statewide election.
Cobb said his group would push for its passage during the next legislative session, which starts in January, but doubts that there are enough votes to get it on the ballot.
"This remains a multiple-year project," he said.
Meanwhile, anti-TABOR forces also have been at work.
Kansas Action for Children this week coordinated telephone briefings among higher education and business officials in Kansas with officials familiar with TABOR and how it has worked in Colorado.
"TABOR, at first glance, seems like it would be a positive thing for Kansas, but when you start to do some in-depth research ... it's really not a positive thing at all," said April Holman, a fiscal analyst for Kansas Action for Children.
KAC opposes the measure because it says it would tie the hands of legislators if they had to respond to an emergency or increased social service needs.
Higher education officials also have voiced opposition, saying that TABOR has shifted funds away from universities in Colorado.
Comments
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merrill (anonymous) says…
TABOR was born more less through Reaganomics when Reagan was governor of California.
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The Colorado TABOR has been used as a model tax and spending limit by the American Legislative Exchange Council. More than a dozen states have now introduced legislation to impose more stringent limits modeled after the TABOR Amendment.
At the same time, the TABOR Amendment has come under fire in Colorado. A recent study by the Bell Policy
Center blames the TABOR Amendment for a structural deficit in the state budget and for the current fiscal crisis. That study calls for replacement of TABOR with a less stringent tax and spending limit:
"TABOR's revenue growth limit is too restrictive, even in the best of times, making it almost impossible for state government to meet critical needs:"
Liberty (anonymous) says…
Sounds something like what we need. A government that can not meet our wants. Then they just might only do what they were originally intended to do (our needs) and no more. But where control needs to be implemented is in the out of control federal government more than the state level.
Godot (anonymous) says…
Liberty, you are right. But we have to start somewhere, and there is more opportunity to exert some influence at the state level. Go TABOR!