In 1992, Gov. Roy Romer said defeating the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights was the “moral equivalent of defeating the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge.”
TABOR’s author, stated Romer, was “a terrorist who would lob a hand grenade into a schoolyard full of children.”
What was Romer actually saying? Is eliminating TABOR the moral equivalent of defeating Hitler?
Romer was, of course, not only beyond the rhetorical pale, he was confused (Nazis were socialists, after all) and pathetically off the mark. TABOR passed that year – and between 1995 and 2000, Colorado ranked first in gross-state-product growth and second in personal-income growth.
In addition, by capping spending, TABOR saved Colorado from the ruinous predicament California and many other states experienced through the recent economic downturn.
But let’s be honest. The fight over TABOR has always been about more than spending or leaky faucets at the local elementary school. It’s about ideology.
If fiscal conservatives were forced to travel on dirt roads and send their teenage kids to roofless schools where compulsory algebra lessons were given on an abacus, they would still press for tax cuts and fiscal responsibility.
I’m conservative enough to admit it.
Liberals, on the other hand, should admit that if the Messiah arrived tomorrow – I’ll project the first sighting in Colorado Springs, just in case – and produced manna from heaven, they’d levy a sales tax on it.
With a bit of counterintuitive thinking, however, Democrats would realize that higher taxes don’t necessarily mean higher revenues. In fact, you need only look to this year’s federal budget deficit, which is projected to drop to an unexpected $333 billion, in part because President Bush’s across-the-board tax cuts have helped spur higher productivity.
People and businesses do better with their own money.
We’ve yet to see anything on the Romer scale of rhetoric, but we have seen accusations that opponents of TABOR-breaking Referendums C and D are “making up facts,” followed by headache-inducing logic aimed at convincing us that paying more in taxes isn’t really a tax hike. Most often, though, proponents rely on old-fashioned scare tactics.
New radio spots begin with ominous music wafting as an actor informs us about the impending destruction of Colorado. Now, cue optimistic music: There is hope … reform! Referendums C and D.
Oh, and it’s not a tax hike.
But why? There is nothing inherently wrong with asking for a tax increase if government really needs it.
In fact, TABOR gives government that very right. It can ask. It is asking.
Language is everything. Democrats realize persuading Coloradans to raise taxes is a historical loser. With a recovery underway, this may be their last chance to dismantle TABOR. They can’t allow their referendums to be defined as a tax boost.
Yet the argument they utilize for this task doesn’t pass the laugh test. A clever marketing strategy has to make sense.
A question worth asking: If a product costs 80 bucks and you pay with a $100 bill but receive no change, are you paying more? Is it an increase in price? Of course it is. That is exactly what Referendum C offers – you get no change.
But many conservatives aren’t thinking short term. They worry about the future.
The economist Milton Friedman once opined that “nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”
There will be no temporary dismant ling of TABOR. You are guaranteed that government won’t come back after five years of spending and simply concede: “Hey, what a ride! Thanks, guys. That’s more than enough. Rock on.”
Five years from now, you’ll hear how far we’ve come. How much progress we’ve made.
Anecdotally, as a 20-plus-year New Yorker, I learned that the largest tax burden in the country can also equate to the largest potholes in the country.
And, trust me, it’s no fun paying high taxes and sending your kid to crumbling schools.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at dharsanyi@denverpost.com or 303-820-1255.
