What’s at stake?
-- What Colorado business and community leaders say about TABOR

"Now, as the economy has slowly begun to recover, we are learning that the revenue and spending limits imposed by TABOR curb the recovery of our public-sector budgets to the point where the state is challenged in its efforts to adequately provide services such as higher education, health care and transportation. Because of the negative economic impact of this strain, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce supports fiscal reforms that allow the state budget to recover, while promoting responsible, limited government." -- Denver Metro Chamber of Commerceⁱ

"Coloradoans were told in 1992 . . . that [TABOR] guaranteed them a right to vote on any and all tax increases. . . . What the public didn't realize was that it would contain the strictest tax and spending limitation of any state in the country, and long-term would hobble us economically." -- Tom Clark, Executive Vice President, Metro Denver Economic Development Corporationⁱⁱ

"While the economy is expected to grow in fiscal year 2005-06 and General Fund revenues will increase 5.5 percent, the amount of General Fund available under current law is approximately $80 million or a 1.4 percent increase. . . . In FY 2005-06, $80 million only covers about 54 percent of the expected growth in Medicaid and K-12 education, leaving those programs under-funded and the remaining state priorities without any funding." -- Governor Bill Owensⁱⁱⁱ

"The [TABOR] formula . . . has an insidious effect where it shrinks government every year, year after year after year after year; it's never small enough. [A]t some point you'll be cutting services that people will start objecting to, and that's when change happens. That is not the best way to form public policy."; -- Brad Young, former Colorado Representative (Republican) and Chair of the Joint Budget Committee^iv

"When TABOR was enacted, roughly 25 percent of the state budget went to funding higher education; it is now under 10 percent. . . . Without TABOR reform there is only one result -- the end of state funding for higher education by the end of the decade." -- Michael Carrigan, University of Colorado Regent^v

"[Business leaders] have figured out that no business would survive if it were run like the TABOR faithful say Colorado should be run -- with withering tax support for college and universities, underfunded public schools and a future of crumbling roads and bridges." -- Neil Westergaard, Editor of the Denver Business Journal^vi

ⁱ Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, "Statement on TABOR," March 2005, www.denverchamber.org/paffairs/tabor.asp

ⁱⁱ Quoted in "The Real Story Behind TABOR," DVD, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, October 2005.

ⁱⁱⁱ Governor Owens, "Submission of FY 2005-06 Budget to the Joint Budget Committee," November 9, 2004, www.state.co.us/gov_dir/govnr_dir/ospb/governorsbudget/govbudgetreq05-06.pdf.

^iv Quoted in "The Real Story Behind TABOR," DVD, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, October 2005.

^v Michael Carrigan, interview by ColoradoPols, March 2005, http://coloradopoliticalnews.blogs.com/colorado_political_news/2005/03/qa_with_cu_rege.html

^vi Neil Westergaard, "Business folks fed up with TABOR worship," Denver Business Journal, July 22, 2005.

Source: A Formula for Decline, Lessons from Colorado for States considering TABOR, David Bradley and Karen Lyons, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, October 19, 2005

What's At Stake:

Senior citizens

Public health and safety

Local communities

Jobs and economic development

K-12 schools

Higher education

Montana's most vulnerable citizens

Agriculture