Mere weeks after Colorado voters expressed their disgust with TABOR -- the "taxpayer's bill of rights" that was instituted in 1992 -- by passing Referendum C, lawmakers in Arizona are discussing efforts to institute their own TABOR-like measure which would limit state spending to population growth plus inflation. That combination was extremely harmful for Coloradoans, who were forced to significantly cut education and other programs and refund $3.25 billion in tax collections from 1992-2002, all while their ability to provide resources was eroding.

GOP state senator Dean Martin, a proponent of instituting a spending limit measure, said Arizona's TABOR "won’t cut any existing spending; it will merely prevent the government from growing faster than it can be supported." This statement is nothing short of a complete contradiction. Preventing tax revenue from being spent on state services guarantees that these programs will not be efficiently funded, and that instead this money will be given back to taxpayers as programs are forced to flounder.

Following up on a previous blog posting regarding Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-IA) amendment to the reconciliation tax bill yesterday, it appears that some of his original supporters deserted him during the actual vote. His amendment, which was defeated 50-46 would have increased the amount appropriated to carry out programs under the Community Services Block Grant Act. It failed despite the fact that fifty-eight Senators signed a letter November 9 stating their support for upholding CSBG funding at $637 million in negotiations with the House on the Labor/HHS bill.

It is interesting then that Harkin’s amendment, which proposed to do exactly this, went down in flames. Seventeen Senators who gave their support on to this letter a little over a week ago didn’t show their support when it mattered — during the vote. These Senators were:

Voters in Colorado decided yesterday to pass a temporary suspension of a harmful constitutional amendment (called the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights or TABOR) that had drastically restricted the state's ability to invest in its education and transportation systems since 1992. Since the amendment was passed, the proportion of low-income children who lack health insurance in Colorado rose from 15 percent to 27 percent. Now, the share of low-income individuals in Colorado enrolled in Medicaid is lower than in all but five other states in the nation. Further, in 2000-01, Colorado ranked 49th in expenditures for K-12 education relative to the state’s economy and the state now ranks 48th in its level of taxpayer support of colleges and universities — down from 35th in 1992.

This is a major victory for the people of Colorado and a sharp rebuke of "starve the beast" advocates in Colorado and around the country. A number of other states around the country are currently considering instituting similar TABOR amendments, and hopefully the citizens in those states will hear the message from Colorado - just say NO to TABOR.