Anyone else facing this "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" proposal in their state? Maine is all up in arms about it. I have been researching it before the elections.

Anyone have a perspective on it? I know it's been tried in a few other states and was really controversial in Colorado.

LINK TO TABOR .pdf




edited title to mitigate disappointment.

TABOR in Colorado was great until they gutted it. It was one of the best tools to avoid runaway government spending but the usual suspects (Demo's, GOV employee unions, NEA, etc.) were able to convince voters that there was a crisis (that could only be solved by government spending, of course). I miss it.

Matt

I already voted for it by absentee ballot. It will not pass though..........

It astounds me that ME is one of the most heavily taxed and worst economies in the country, but the Democrats are never blamed for that fact. Even though they have controlled the state for the last 20 years.

TABOR is a great concept.  Anything that restrains .gov spending is good, imho.

The argument that I've heard against it is that it's a blanket solution to a many-faceted and complex issue.

Also, voter apathy is a big problem, especially when it involves voting often, and the cost of notifying voters of the referendums and holding a special election is around $50,000-$60,000.


I'm not sold completely yet.

How does it compare to Prop 13 and it's provisions in CA.  That limited property taxes to 1% of assessed value and new taxes require a 2/3rds majority to get passed.

I know that kicked the tar out of a lot of city budgets and knocked a lot of the quality of life extras in many cities out in favor of concentrating on the necessities.

We don't get too many frivolous taxes around here.

So in some ways overall it was a very good thing, but there have been some taxes that have not made it that should have.

here's an email i got about it.  i know that it's usually not a good idea to post stuff that appeared in your inbox, but what the hell:

TABOR is an acronym for the "Taxpayer Bill of Rights." The passage of state TABOR and TABOR-like proposals is a nationwide campaign pushed by anti-tax advocates. The goal is to reduce the size of state government by limiting taxes. Most TABOR proposals are constitutional amendments that would restrict the state's ability to generate needed tax revenues. Generally, TABOR proposals adopt a formula for state revenue growth that limits state government spending to the sum of inflation plus population change and requires the voters to approve any tax increase beyond exemptions specified in the initiative's language. Some TABORs also limit local revenue and spending. TABOR does not allow for state budgets to cover emergencies and unforeseen events, *nor for unfunded federal mandates.* Colorado passed its TABOR in 1992 and is the only state thus far to do so. In November, 2005 Coloradoans voted to suspend TABOR for five years because of the massive damage TABOR had inflicted on the state's economy. Since 2001, Colorado policymakers have been forced to make $1 billion in state spending cuts. Colorado:   * Has the nation's lowest ratio of teacher salaries to average     private-sector earnings (teacher pay is 7 percent below the     national average);   * Has fallen from 26th to 32nd in K-12 education funding, the fourth     largest drop in the nation;   * Has seen high school graduation rates fall from 76 percent in 1990     to 70 percent in 2004;   * Has seen on-time immunization rates drop to the lowest in the     nation, in 2002-2003;   * Ranks 45th in the nation on the share of low-income individuals     enrolled in Medicaid;   * Has seen the proportion of children without health insurance rise     from 15 percent in 1991-1992 to 27 percent in 2002-2003, while the     national average declined from 21 percent to 19 percent;   * Stopped paying TABOR tax refunds beginning in 2001.   * Closed 32 driver's license stations, lengthening the lines at     existing offices.   * Suspended state property tax credits for 120,000 elderly residents     for three years.

It is the legislators that have hurt Colorado, not TABOR.

Legislators, kept spending to the max during the years of plenty, so when the lean years came, they didn't have enough for their pet projects. Instead of cutting the pork, they decided to cut services people use.

I am for throwing most of them out and starting over again, but we have to many transplants from CA and the New England states......

Quoted: It is the legislators that have hurt Colorado, not TABOR. Legislators, kept spending to the max during the years of plenty, so when the lean years came, they didn't have enough for their pet projects. Instead of cutting the pork, they decided to cut services people use. I am for throwing most of them out and starting over again, but we have to many transplants from CA and the New England states......

+1 My former home state (WI) has been fighting to get TABOR for a while...

It's a good idea - most of the waste and government abuse is state and local, after all...

Quoted: +1 My former home state (WI) has been fighting to get TABOR for a while... It's a good idea - most of the waste and government abuse is state and local, after all...

-1.

Wisconsin's TABOR only applies to county & local, not state.  (And how can you believe the Fed's don't throw more money away than the state/local .govs?  Have you seen the pork coming out of DC?)

Local municipal government is already the most responsive gov't to citizenry already.  The city councils are looking into spending pretty hard, because it's small enough where they can still examine everything.  If TABOR had passed a few years ago, my city would still be using a 1950's water treatment facility, and your daughter who suffered a sexual assault would still be interviewed in the HALLWAY, where the detective's desk was located.  Oh, and the school district, which already spends below state average--and performs below state average--could never hope to improve performance.  Of course, local taxpayers are ALREADY voting against further school funding, so how would TABOR improve anything?

Sorry, TABOR is a simplistic answer and a BAD idea.