Alabama Did It
Title: “Would You Rather Be in Colorado?”
Sponsor: Institute for Policy Information
Type: Digital radio
The message: “Gov. Bill Owens has often been a champion of fiscal restraint, but he’s leading the charge for weakening TABOR. He says the state needs the money. But when Alabama faced a similar situation last year, the voters rejected a huge tax increase and guess what? The Alabama Legislature magically found some spending cuts. Don’t you think Colorado’s legislature could be just as resourceful?”
The facts: Referendum C asks voters to temporarily suspend the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights’ spending cap for five years, allowing state government to keep $3.7 billion in revenue that otherwise would have to be refunded. Referendum D asks voters to approve additional borrowing for investment in state infrastructure. Owens insists that he remains a fiscal conservative and that the budget in Colorado already is lean.
Alabama voters, asked by Republican Gov. Bob Riley to approve a $1.2 billion tax increase, said “no” in 2003, not 2004. This year, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., found that Alabama’s tax structure was not sufficiently funding state services there.
