Three 2010 ballot initiatives promise to change the Colorado economy
Posted By Tom Clark February 4, 2010
Just when we thought it was safe to go all out for the economic recovery, our “friends” and aspirants to the Doug Bruce look-alike award have planted three initiatives on November’s ballot that will cut taxes, eliminate public debt, and reduce your auto registration. And that’s not all….If you vote "Yes" in November, we’ll start collecting property taxes from colleges, the Department of Wildlife, every water and sewer district, and local schools. Not enough? If you vote "Yes" we’ll even permit you to roll back your local public school property taxes through a local citizen initiative AND we’ll force the State of Colorado to pay for your local school’s loss of your tax revenue.
I’m not kidding.
Proposition 101 and Amendments 60 and 61 propose to do the above and much more. We’ll explore these three proposals in a subsequent post. But if you think that the absurdity of such initiatives will result in an automatic voter rejection, think again.
In 1992 Doug Bruce placed his TABOR initiative on the ballot. It had already been defeated twice before. Responsible business leaders could not imagine that voters would pass it this time. Those who sought funds to run an opposing campaign were seen as the Henny Penny’s – sky is falling – alarmists.
The historical context of TABOR’s passage in 1992 has an eerily similar to today. Back then Congress narrowly defeated a "balanced budget" amendment. The nation was just beginning to see the final exit of a very difficult economy that saw a deep recession in the mid-80s. The electorate was angry, very angry. Congress had not listened to them. The national economy was in the midst of a restructuring for the coming Digital Age and jobs were hard to come by. Colorado’s Governor Romer was focused on a tax increase for education.
Since voters felt powerless to impact Congressional decisions they found a perfect outlet…TABOR. It was time to send a message, even if it went to the wrong address. TABOR passed. It was preceded by Bird-Arveschoug (setting a 6 percent limit on state revenues) and followed by Amendment 23. The Gordian Knot in the Constitution got tied – TABOR, Gallagher (1982), and Amendment 23 placed the State’s budget on cruise control, making it impossible for the General Assembly to manage government and to respond to economic change.
Fast forward to 2010. Both Republicans during the Bush years and Democrats today are in a spending mood – in the hundreds of billions of dollars. TARP, ARRA, corporate bailouts, and national healthcare have left the electorate very, very angry. They may well decide to send a message, again, to the wrong address. The populous appeal of 101, 60 and 61 will be a great way for frustrated, unemployed, or furloughed workers to vent their anger. If they do, we will be assured of climate change – the business climate. But it won’t be warming.