Topeka ? Advocates for children released a study Monday that said a Colorado-type budget limit in Kansas would lead to cuts in schools, social services and public safety, and an increase in tuition.

Gary Brunk, executive director of Kansas Action for Children, said the proposed Taxpayer Bill of Rights would produce “a Kansas nightmare.”

But supporters of TABOR said the study was off base and that it was KAC that was involved in scare tactics.

“It does seem to me that they kind of cherry-picked the things that make the public scream a little more,” said Alan Cobb, director of the Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which is pushing for TABOR.

In Colorado, TABOR was approved by voters in 1992. It limits government spending growth to the inflation rate plus population increases. Revenues collected above that amount are refunded to taxpayers. It also requires voter approval before taxes can be increased.

A similar measure is before Kansas lawmakers.

The proposed constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate and approval at the polls before it could be implemented in Kansas.

A study conducted on behalf of KAC by the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that TABOR has wreaked havoc on the Colorado budget and would do the same in Kansas.

Had Kansas been under the same fiscal constraints as in Colorado, its state general fund budget for the past fiscal year would have had to have been cut by nearly 20 percent, $890 million.

Applied proportionately to the state budget, such a reduction would require getting rid of 10,000 school teachers, eliminating HealthWave, the insurance program for low-income families, increasing tuition by $1,400 per student and housing 1,300 fewer prisoners, the study’s authors found.

David Bradley, an author of the study, said TABOR “strangles programs and services slowly.”

He said one of the problems with TABOR is that government spending generally exceeds the inflation rate because government pays for high ticket expenses, such as providing health care for the elderly and educational programs for students who require lots of care.

But Cobb said TABOR would stimulate the state economy by refunding monies to taxpayers and curbing government programs that build in increased spending for years to come.

“Those who think more and more government spending is a good thing,” oppose the amendment, Cobb said.

Cobb and Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, said Colorado is outperforming Kansas economically because its tax burden is lower.

Landwehr has been staffing a TABOR information booth at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson the past couple of days. She said Kansans want the amendment.

“I’ve had a lot of people who are retiring, saying they won’t retire in Kansas because of the taxes,” Landwehr said.

Opponents of TABOR, however, said Colorado is having budget problems because of the amendment.

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.

Meanwhile, a coalition of school advocacy groups announced it will hold a series of meetings the next few weeks to inform the public on how TABOR and proposed constitutional amendments to prohibit the Kansas Supreme Court from ordering school funding would affect schools.

This year, the state Supreme Court ordered the Legislature to increase education spending because it said the school finance system was unconstitutional. Lawmakers increased school funding by $290 million, about 10 percent, but conservatives tried unsuccessfully to approve constitutional amendments that would prevent the court from ordering them to increase school funding in the future.

The issue is expected to come up again during the 2006 legislative session, which starts in January.

The meetings will be conducted by the Kansas Association of School Boards, Kansas-National Education Assn., United School Administrators of Kansas, and Kansas Families United for Public Education. The first meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at Jardine Middle School in Topeka. No meetings were scheduled for Lawrence.