April 30, 2009 03:41 PM UTC

Marostica Defends Arveschoug-Bird Repeal

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• by: Colorado Pols

In a guest column in today’s Greeley Tribune, maverick GOP Rep. Don Marostica writes:

There’s an old saying, “If it jams, force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyways.” That’s a pretty good summation of where we’re at with Colorado’s budget system.

Over the last two decades or so, we jammed up the state’s budget system with conflicting provisions, and we forced it repeatedly by pushing off tough decisions.

That’s where Senate Bill 228 comes in. It’s a budget reform bill that would get rid of an outdated formula (Arveschoug-Bird) that has hampered Colorado’s economy for years.

I’ve embraced and sponsored this legislation along with Sen. John Morse because it puts Colorado back on track toward sound fiscal management and a quick, strong recovery from the recession.

Just this week, the bill passed out of the House Transportation Committee after much debate. It was an encouraging step for critical budget reform that will put Colorado on a better fiscal road.

Critics of SB 228 have repeatedly made misleading and outright false attacks about this legislation. They’ve said it will increase spending, which it does not; that it will raise your taxes, which it will not. And that it will increase the size of government, which it can’t.

What it does is put us back on a level playing field with nearly every other state in the country, so that we can invest in job-creating priorities in good times, support key worker safety net services and economic development programs in bad times, stabilize transportation and capital construction funding, and strengthen our reserves to weather fluctuations in the economy.

As legislators, we have been elected to safeguard taxpayer dollars and write budgets that reflect the priorities of the Coloradans we represent. Abdicating that responsibility by relying on archaic formulas and ill-conceived spending mandates is exactly how California worked its way into a $42 billion deficit. It’s also the reason that Colorado risks artificially extending this recession, unless we repeal Arveschoug-Bird.