Topeka ? A public policy expert who has monitored the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights in Colorado said Kansas should reject a similar proposal that is being considered here.

“It’s very popular to be anti-government and TABOR is at it’s essence anti-government,” Carol Hedges, an analyst with the Colorado Fiscal Policy Center, said in a briefing to the Kansas Board of Regents.

TABOR is the acronym for the constitutional amendment adopted in Colorado in 1992.

Since it was implemented, Hedges said higher education and public schools have been the biggest loser in the Colorado budget.

TABOR restricts government spending to inflation plus population growth and requires voter approval of tax increases.

Hedges said while those features sound good on the surface, they have resulted in strangling the ability of government to respond to new emergencies and increase funding for new mandated services.

Higher education funding gets reduced because “it isn’t a mandatory expense in the same way that Corrections and Medicaid are,” she said.

The Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which is pushing for approval of TABOR, issued a statement that said opponents of the amendment were being reckless and desperate.

Barry Poulson, also of Colorado, said the TABOR amendment in Colorado has improved the economy and provided taxpayers with $3 billion in rebates.

A proposal in Kansas similar to TABOR is before the Kansas Legislature. It would require a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate before it could be placed on the ballot.