Can anyone from Colorado tell me about Tabor?

Question

Maine is looking at this law and it is up for vote in the coming election. I would rather hear from people who have experience with this than listening to politicians. Thanks

Answer 1

TABOR is an acronym that stands for Taxpayers' Bill of Rights. Its intent was to force the Colorado government to determine a budget and collect taxes to fund the expenditures, but to refund any excess amounts collected to the taxpayers if more money was collected than spent.

Sounds good in theory and the people of Colorado overwhelmingly voted for this referendum in the late 90s when times were good and everyone was well employed.

BUT... then the economy went south, particularly in Colorado, when the dot-com and telecommunications companies when bust and unemployment skyrocketed. All of a sudden, the state wasn't taking as much tax revenue in and couldn't fund its budget and didn't have any money saved for a rainy day because it had to all be refunded. This is not good. In 2005, the Colorado taxpayers approved a referendum to not refund as much money in order to fund schools and highway projects. The opponents called it a "tax increase," but that's not the case - people had already paid their income taxes, but just didn't get as big a refund in April.

In my opinion, TABOR is not a good idea because it doesn't allow government to save money for lean years when incomes won't be as great as predicted. It is NOT, as opponents say, a blank check for government to spend as it wishes - it still has to pass a budget and get expenditures approved. There are unforseen emergencies like natural disasters that need funds that won't be there if all the money is paid back. If you think you're being taxed too much, then pressure the legislature to make cutbacks. Don't assume they'll always have *too* much money!

Answer 2

Try this link. I'm a new Coloradoan, and quite frankly, don't understand it all.


http://www.ncsl.org/programs/fiscal/taborpts.htm