Colorado: Tabor

Colorado's Taxpayers Bill of Rights, known as TABOR, requires voter approval for any net increase in government revenue, contains a section that reads, “other limits on district revenue, spending, and debt may be weakened only by future voter approval.” Republicans are saying this includes the 6 percent limit, also know as Averschoug-Bird, which means that voter approval would be required for its elimination. Democrats, meanwhile, argue that the 6 percent limit is not actually a limit at all. SB 228's sponsor, Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, has taken to calling the 6 percent limit an “arbitrary allocation formula.”

Barry Poulson, one of the original collaborators on TABOR and a senior fellow at the Independence Institute, agrees with Republicans.

Colorado Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry (Photo/Bob Spencer/The Colorado Independent)

Senate Bill 228, Democratic Sen. John Morse’s controversial budget reform legislation, received key preliminary approval late last night after a 10-hour Republican filibuster that, for all its passion, never seriously threatened passage of the bill.

Senate members on both sides of the aisle agreed SB 228 was among the most important laws they would consider this year and would have ramifications on Colorado governance for years to come, amounting to a “sea change,” as state Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, described it, in the way tax revenues would be spent.

SB 228 seeks to repeal a 1992 budget provision called Arveschoug-Bird that requires any revenues collected by the state above a 6 percent annual increase to flow away from the state’s discretionary General Fund and into transportation and capital construction projects such as highway maintenance and construction at public university buildings.

State Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs. (Photo/Bob Spencer, The Colorado Independent)

On Wednesday, the Colorado Senate Finance Committee approved Senate Bill 228 — legislation that seeks to provide greater flexibility to lawmakers in deciding where to spend the state’s shrinking revenues.

State Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs. (Photo/Bob Spencer, The Colorado Independent)

Sponsored by Democratic Sen. John Morse, the bill would eliminate the so-called Arveschoug-Bird provision, which restricts the state’s General Fund to 6 percent growth per year and allocates any surplus specifically to transportation and construction projects. Morse’s bill and the problem it seeks to address are tongue-twisting and arcane, yet the small corner room of the Capitol where the hearing took place was filled with laptop jockeys, community leaders, a webcast crew and a buzz that hung in the air when it became clear that SB228 was going to clear its first public hurdle.

Today I had the opportunity to have lunch with Senators Brandon Shaffer and Rollie Heath after a town meeting they just held. So I got them coming off of 2? hours of discussing what they are doing down at the legislature and answering questions. That worked really well as they were already focused on discussing their efforts down at the capitol.
Rollie mentioned up front that he gave everyone 5 minutes to speak and Brandon was the only one to live with that limit. I'm shocked, repeat shocked, that most of the politicians talked for longer than scheduled.

It started off with Brandon asking me about my blogging & my company.