New Orleans poses a cautionary tale for Colorado.
Not that we’re likely to suffer a hurricane, or that wide swaths of the state are likely to end up under water. Nevertheless, there are lessons to be learned from the recent tragedy along the Gulf, including what happens when budget cuts result in deterioration of vital infrastructure (in New Orleans’ case, lack of maintenance of the levees), and when a government is unable to protect its most vulnerable citizens. As the tragedy in New Orleans makes clear, strong government services are essential to the health and well-being of society.
Not that you’d know it by listening to those who oppose Referendum C on the November ballot. The referendum asks voters to let the state suspend their refunds under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights for five years. A “yes” vote would result in an estimated $3.7 billion that the state would use for earmarked purposes, including higher education, health care and K-12 education.
Referendum D (which kicks in only if Referendum C is also passed) would let the state issue bonds against the TABOR savings to jump-start road construction and repairs to educational facilities, and to pay the state’s obligation to police and firefighter retirement plans.
The opponents of C and D are content to let Colorado’s roads, highways and bridges continue to deteriorate. They are willing to permit more cuts in health care for working poor families. They are cavalier about the future that police and firefighters face with under-funded pensions.
And they are happy – yes, happy – to see college and university educations priced out of reach of ordinary families. In what has to be the most egregious statement of the election season, former state Sen. John Andrews, a prominent opponent of C and D, has publicly stated: “Higher education is a remarkable bargain for affluent Colorado families. I’d like to see tuition go up as much or more” than the 15-plus percent increases this year at the University of Colorado and Colorado State University.
No two ways about it. In the world Andrews would inhabit, college would be strictly for the wealthy. Let the rest eat cake (or, more accurately, let children from poor and middle-class families spend their lives laboring at unskilled, low-paid jobs). Never mind the lost potential of young minds. Never mind the high-quality jobs that will migrate away from Colorado with the decline of an educated workforce.
Gov. Bill Owens, long known as a fiscal conservative, understands these realities. He is out stumping for C and D, and taking harsh criticism from the anti-gov’mint crowd as a result.
Former GOP chairman Bruce Benson and former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, with their strong conservative credentials, also understand the consequences if the referendums aren’t passed. Brown, now president of the University of Colorado, points out that without C and D, within 10 years there will be no state support for Colorado colleges and universities. Not one red cent.
Numerous prominent business leaders have joined in support of the measures as well. Most recently, Ray Kolibaba, who directs Raytheon’s 2,600-worker Space Systems, has pointed out that companies seeking well-educated workers will give Colorado a wide berth if C and D fail and higher education is allowed to deteriorate further.
Opponents of C and D, including Republican gubernatorial wannabes, are conspicuously silent when asked how Colorado will cope with $400 million in budget cuts next year if the measures don’t pass. What will they do about services for seniors? About overcrowded prisons? About the myriad other essential services that will be on the chopping block?
Instead, opponents continue their shrill mantra that C and D constitute a “tax increase” – which, of course, they do not. In fact, if C passes, the state’s tax rate will actually decline during years when there is a TABOR overrun.
Opponents also refuse to say where the money for their anti-C and D radio campaigns comes from. Why? Are they afraid that voters will be offended if they learn that out-of-staters want to eliminate Colorado’s ability to “maintain the levees,” allowing destruction of lives, hopes and the state’s economic future?
Coloradans would be wise to heed New Orleans’ cautionary tale when they mark their ballots this fall.
