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Colorado voters point the way for Oregon
Submitted by Ginny Ross - DFO on November 2, 2005 - 3:09pm
NEWS RELEASE
November 2, 2005
Contact: Patty Wentz, (503) 239-8029, Cell: (503) 970-7929
Colorado voters showed that they’ve learned the hard way and national anti-government groups faced a stunning defeat yesterday with the passage of Referendum C. The vote rolls back TABOR (Taxpayer Bill of Rights), the spending limit that had put a stranglehold on the state. Oregon voters may face a similar measure on the 2006 ballot, pushed by the national anti-government group, FreedomWorks.
Colorado business leaders and its Republican governor were central in leading the fight to protect the state’s roads, education and human services from being further decimated by TABOR. Voters initially passed TABOR in 1992 then rolled it back then yesterday.
“Colorado voters recognized that instead of a bill of rights, they were sold a bill of goods,” says Chris Coughlin, executive director of Our Oregon, a progressive advocacy group. “Just like the TABOR measure that’s being pushed in Oregon, it’s a gimmick that sounds good but fails to deliver.”
TABOR had been in effect in Colorado for 13 years. Over that time the state lost ground on nearly every important measurement of overall well being. Colorado dropped from 35th to 49th in the nation in K-12 spending as a percentage of personal income, in-state tuition increased 21 percent over the last four years and childhood vaccination rates have plummeted.
Coughlin says that because TABOR had been put in the Colorado constitution – just like the one proposed in Oregon - it took a huge effort on the part of local leaders and citizens to regain control of their state.
According to news reports, most of the effort and funding to suspend TABOR came from Colorado businesses and private citizens. Conversely, the war chest to defend TABOR poured in from outside the state from ideologically driven national groups like FreedomWorks and Club for Growth.
"The Colorado defeat has to give these groups pause as they consider pouring millions of dollars into an Oregon fight,” says Coughlin. “But if they do, Oregon won’t be easily fooled into falling for TABOR.”
Lynn Lundquist, the president of the Oregon Business Association points out that the Colorado business community led the effort to suspend TABOR after more than a decade of watching the state’s economic infrastructure deteriorate.
“TABOR would be bad for Oregon business,” says Lundquist. “TABOR-style spending limits use bad math that has no relation to state economic reality and arbitrarily reduces funding on education, roads, and the other services we need to build a strong business climate in our state.”
Great news!
This is fantastic--a huge defeat for Grover Norquist and the neocon extremists who are trying to ruin our country.
This press release is from the Our Oregon coalition and they are doing a great job. Find out more and get involved at their website: http://www.ouroregoncoalition.org/
Defanging the 'TABOR-Toothed Tiger'
More on TABOR from Media Matters:
On November 1, Colorado voters suspended the state's taxpayers' Bill of Rights" (TABOR), a hodgepodge of "anti-tax" initiatives that became law in Colorado in 1992. The approved statewide ballot proposition, Referendum C, will allow the state to keep an extra $3.7 billion over the next five years and reinvest it in critical services like health care and transportation. TABOR has impaired Colorado's ability to set priorities and respond to crises through an overly "restrictive formula" and has contributed to a "decline in public services in Colorado." While TABOR has been a "model conservatives hold up for other states to emulate," Stephen Slivinski at the libertarian Cato Institute admitted that the defeat of TABOR in Colorado "might take some of the wind out of their [TABOR advocates'] sails." Californians head to the polls on November 8 to vote on their own version of TABOR, and Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are considering similar legislation. Tom Wolf of the Coalition for Common Sense Priorities notes, "The only state that actually has to live under TABOR just voted to suspend it." TABOR didn't work in Colorado, and it won't work in other states.
COLORADANS COULD NOT AFFORD TO VOTE 'NO': Fifty-two percent of voters decided it was time to make some changes, rejecting the right-wing claim that "Tabor has been great for our economy" and embracing the bipartisan effort for Referendum C, led by Gov. Bill Owens (R) and groups such as The Bell Policy Center and the Colorado Progressive Coalition. Under TABOR, the percentage of Coloradans with no health insurance rose from 12.7 percent in 1992 to 15.6 percent in 2001. K-12 education spending per student fell by more than $300 compared to the national average from 1992 to 2000 and in-state tuition at colleges and universities increased 21 percent over the last four years. Owens, who supported TABOR in 1992, hailed the victory: "Where I come out is with the pride of knowing that when I finish as governor I will have done the right thing for Colorado, and that's hugely important to me."
RIGHT-WING SPIN ON LOSS ALREADY IN MOTION: The right, which is attempting to spread TABOR nationwide, immediately tried to place blame on voters and progressives and to spin their defeat into gain. Douglas Bruce, the author of the TABOR amendment, called the outcome "disappointing" and said voters will "have to accept the consequences of voting themselves back into slavery." But even Bruce had to acknowledge that "Tuesday's vote makes it harder now for other states to cap spending." Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, has held up TABOR as a "holy grail" of state fiscal policy. He was less than happy after Tuesday's vote: "Young Republican children years from now will be scared in campground campfires by stories about Bill Owens - the tax-cutting Republican who magically turned into a tax-increase bad guy...and they will not be able to sleep all night."
TABOR MEANS TROUBLE FOR OTHER STATES: On the same day that Coloradans threw out TABOR, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a similar bill -- among "the most restrictive in the nation" -- which the Coalition for Common Sense Priorities notes could be even more devastating in Pennsylvania than Colorado because spending caps are linked to the rate of population growth. Colorado's population grew about 40 percent since 1990 versus 5 percent in Pennsylvania." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) wants California voters on Nov. 8 to "give him the power to cut funding without legislative approval." The Missouri Budget Project believes that TABOR will be just as devastating to Missouri as it was to Colorado. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities concluded that Ohio's proposal, developed by Ohio's right-wing Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, would dramatically cut social programs and "is fundamentally the same as Colorado's TABOR."
It gets better
Progressive Majority (http://progressivemajority.com/), another grass roots organizing group, reports that 61% of their candidates were elected in Colorado.
Two, John Gundvangen and Tami Hasling, were elected to the D11 school board. That is home territory of James Dobson's Focus on the Family. This indicates a significant shift in sentiment.
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"For a Speedy, General and Lasting Peace -- Tax the Profiteers."
Victor Berger