October 14, 2009 04:34 PM UTC

Colorado To Maine: Don't Let TABOR Happen To You

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• by: Colorado Pols

Former Colorado senator Steve Johnson (R) sounds the alarm in the Pine Tree State over their proposed Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), as the Bar Harbor Times reported last week:

While supporters of the latest go-round of the taxpayer bills of rights (TABOR II) say it is needed to rein in unchecked government spending, opponents decry the measure, saying it will hamstring government.

The Maine Municipal Association, which represents communities across the state, has been among the most vocal critics of TABOR II, which goes before voters on the November ballot. Among the issues MMA raises against TABOR are that the measure would keep spending ratcheted down to unreasonable levels even after economic times improve; that it requires statewide referenda for a net increase in spending of as little as $300,000, and that such referenda can cost in excess of $1 million; that it is too restrictive on special revenue accounts; that TABOR would make it impossible for the state to fully fund education; and that it strips local control away from communities…

MMA officials raised these points during a recent publishers’ forum with the editors of Village Soup newspapers. They also brought in tow someone who has seen up close what TABOR can do – Steve Johnson, a former state senator from Colorado, where a TABOR measure was approved as a constitutional amendment in 1992. Voters in that state voted for a five-year timeout from TABOR in 2005 – with much of the funding in the campaign to repeal coming from the business community – because of all the havoc it wreaked, said Johnson.

“It has done a tremendous amount of harm there,” said Johnson. He said the Colorado version of TABOR is tied to the Consumer Price Index and population growth, and those two factors do not accurately reflect what goods and services cost the state.

TABOR at first didn’t seem all that problematic, said Johnson, because Colorado was going through boom years economically. But when the economy worsened, TABOR hammered hard and its restrictions left the state in a painful financial vise.

“We’ve had to make devastating cuts in state services,” he said. “State funding was cut by 40 percent, and we had no general fund money for transportation.” Education funding was affected as well, he added…

“It doesn’t really create local control. If anything, it mandates your choices, and takes control away,” said Johnson. “It’s just not a good system.”