SEARCH
Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Sounds Good. It Isn’t |
So-called Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR) schemes, now being pushed in states from Arizona to Wisconsin by weird right extremists like Grover Norquist (a buddy of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff), are not just a bad idea, they’re recipes for disaster.
Just look at Colorado.
In 1992, Colorado voters passed a TABOR law that put a rigid spending cap on the state and strict limits on raising revenue to pay for vital services.
After watching Colorado fall to 49th in the nation in spending on education, seeing the number of low-income children without health insurance double and the deterioration of emergency services, roads and law enforcement, voters realized they had been sold a bad bill of goods.
Last November they voted overwhelmingly to suspend TABOR.
But the hard facts of TABOR’s failure hasn’t deterred its pushers. In more than a dozen states, including Wisconsin, Oregon, Arizona, Ohio, Arizona and Maine, they are funneling money and support to put TABOR-like initiatives on the November ballot or pass legislation.
On top of that, TABOR’s backers are trying to spin the Colorado debacle as a success, claiming TABOR actually fueled economic growth. But recent reports by the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) debunks that myth.
According to Nicholas Johnson, director of CBPP’s State Fiscal Projects:
Colorado’s economy had been growing faster than most other states, long before it adopted TABOR. The claim that TABOR explains Colorado’s prosperity in the 1990s—and that other states can boost their economies by adopting TABOR—isn’t based on fact.
In Wisconsin, backers tweaked a proposed TABOR bill and renamed it the Taxpayer Protection Amendment, but in reality, it’s more of a “TABOR 2” in the way it hamstrings the local and state governments.
Says state Sen. Judith Robson (D):
TABOR 2 is a blueprint for disaster….It abdicates our responsibility as legislators and takes away control. It does nothing to protect the firefighters and police officers who keep our communities safe.
A coalition of unions, community groups, municipal and county officials and others mobilized to put the brakes on the Wisconsin scheme in the first session of the legislature, but it is expected to resurface in a special session in late April or early May.
David Newby, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, says the tax scheme
Undermines local control, creates a potential litigation nightmare for communities and cripples the ability of elected officials to thoughtfully respond to local needs.
In Oregon, TABOR backers are trying to collect signatures to put the issue on the ballot, but their money isn’t coming from Oregonians, according to state records.
The group pushing TABOR in Oregon received $40,000 from Norquist through Norquist’s group Americans for Tax Reform in Washington, D.C., and another $60,000 from the Glenview, Ill.-based Americans for Limited Government. The February report from the secretary of state’s office listed one in-state contribution—$100 from the Taxpayer Association of Oregon.
The Arizona AFL-CIO calls the two TABOR bills now in the legislature “fiscal gimmicks that give the illusion of fiscal responsibility” and has mobilized members to e-mail and lobby lawmakers against the idea.
The Maine Citizen Leadership Fund blog posted this cartoon reprint from the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram that sums up what residents of all states face from TABOR.
Whatever it’s called, bill of rights, protection amendment, it’s not what’s really needed for states to deal with fiscal issues, says Richard Abelson, executive director of AFSCME Council 48 in Wisconsin.
If we need protection, it’s protection from elected officials who hand out special tax breaks and favors to campaign contributors and force the rest of us to pick up the tab.
No Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
