A storm has been brewing in Colorado over the past three years – ever since the 2001-02 recession reduced state revenues by 17 percent.
Like other states, we adjusted to the circumstances by cutting services. There simply wasn’t enough money to do more. As the economy recovered and revenues returned to regular levels, the other 49 states have been able to rebuild such programs as health care, education, highways and parks.
Colorado, however, is stuck in a fiscal twilight zone. Revenues are growing again, but an oddball clause in the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights forbids a return to normal spending levels. Experts call this “the ratchet effect,” or simply, “the glitch.” No other state has anything like it.
Referendums C and D on Tuesday’s ballot give voters a chance to head off this bizarre – and completely unnecessary – budget crisis. Otherwise, Colorado soon will run short of the funds needed to keep a modern state running – the budget office anticipates a $365 million shortfall next year alone and hundreds of millions more in the years ahead. Residents will feel a painful pinch – funding will be at risk for public education, health and safety programs, roads and bridges, reservoirs and parks.
State political leaders foresaw this calamity, and Republicans and Democrats buried the hatchet long enough to craft a solution. This is something of a political miracle, as if they saw a hurricane coming and passed a bill to have it stall harmlessly out at sea.
The Colorado Economic Recovery Act – C and D – asks voters to approve a five-year reprieve from the TABOR straitjacket. The measures would allow the state to keep “surplus” revenues that would otherwise be rebated to taxpayers. Tax rates and individual income-tax refunds are not affected.
We urge voters to approve C and D. This rare front-page editorial represents our strong feeling that these measures will safeguard the state treasury and sustain Colorado’s economic vitality. Conversely, we believe the failure of C and D could very well send the state into an economic tailspin.
The referendums have drawn opposition from out- of-state interests who would impale Colorado on the stake of anti-tax purity (and not have to live with the consequences). Local devotees distort the facts and sneer at Gov. Bill Owens and folks like Hank Brown, Bruce Benson, Norma Anderson and Jack Taylor as “RINOs” – Republicans in name only.
To cover the state’s needs, the opponents propose to sell off (and then lease back) state buildings, put tolls on our highways, privatize Colorado colleges and filch funds from lottery receipts and the tobacco settlement. Is that what any of us really wants?
We can hardly ask more of our leaders than to see a threat on the horizon and face it head-on. Owens and his GOP allies can be proud of their collaboration with Democrats John Hickenlooper, Joan Fitz-Gerald and Andrew Romanoff, Denver Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput and business leaders who have forged and championed C and D.
Look down the road. Colorado’s needs will grow with its population, but such services as education, health programs and transportation could be hit by a fiscal hurricane. We can send this storm out to sea by saying “yes” to C and D.
