While Governor Brewer's budget proposal is far superior to what the Republicans in the state legislature have passed, it contains some very disturbing language regarding future budgets. She proposes to change the constitutional spending limits to a "combined population and inflation formula." Such a formula is at the heart of the so-called Tax Payer Bill of Rights proposals which have popped up in different states and only passed in one-- Colorado.
It nearly devastated the state.
TABOR is sold as a way of reforming government spending-- and it does. It slashes state revenue and state spending so much that taxpayers begin paying for luxuries previously purchased by the state. School luxuries such as textbooks, teacher aides, and sports. Universities are hit even harder.
One Colorado Republican state senator, Norma Anderson, summed it up with this. "Start closing your parks and your higher ed, and have lousy highways. That's what you get with TABOR."
The voters in Colorado eventually repealed TABOR but not before they fell billions of dollars behind in education funding, transportation funding, and public safety funding.
If we focus on the fight between the governor and the legislature instead of what they are proposing, we may end up with TABOR in our state. It may be hard to imagine funding our schools at a lower level than we already do, but it is quite possible.
Here is a 13 minute video on TABOR's impact on Colorado. It explains why a funding formula of "inflation plus population" is flawed. It details TABOR's impact on schools, public safety, and average citizens of Colorado. Every minute is worth watching, so grab a coke and get comfortable.
Will we learn from the mistakes in Colorado?
It nearly devastated the state.
TABOR is sold as a way of reforming government spending-- and it does. It slashes state revenue and state spending so much that taxpayers begin paying for luxuries previously purchased by the state. School luxuries such as textbooks, teacher aides, and sports. Universities are hit even harder.
One Colorado Republican state senator, Norma Anderson, summed it up with this. "Start closing your parks and your higher ed, and have lousy highways. That's what you get with TABOR."
The voters in Colorado eventually repealed TABOR but not before they fell billions of dollars behind in education funding, transportation funding, and public safety funding.
If we focus on the fight between the governor and the legislature instead of what they are proposing, we may end up with TABOR in our state. It may be hard to imagine funding our schools at a lower level than we already do, but it is quite possible.
Here is a 13 minute video on TABOR's impact on Colorado. It explains why a funding formula of "inflation plus population" is flawed. It details TABOR's impact on schools, public safety, and average citizens of Colorado. Every minute is worth watching, so grab a coke and get comfortable.
Will we learn from the mistakes in Colorado?
Pretty scary to think that we may soon be using this film to fight a TABOR initiative here in Arizona. TABOR would freeze us at the bottom.
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