DENVER—Colorado House Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff will ask voters to approve a measure he said will fix conflicting constitutional mandates to ease state spending limits, instead of trying to get lawmakers’ approval for a ballot proposal.
“I think to try to get it through the Legislature would be and exercise in futility,” Romanoff said Sunday, noting he lacks the support from lawmakers to get the plan on the November ballot. “Our plan is to bypass the Legislature and just take our plan directly to the voters by initiative. We want the people to vote.”
The Denver Democrat said his plan will ask voters to let the state keep tax surplus refunds under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, to invest in the State Education Fund. He says his plan would also create a state rainy day fund, particularly for education, while asking voters to eliminate mandatory education spending increases under Amendment 23.
If approved, the initiative would amend the Colorado Constitution, making the changes permanent.
Romanoff said the plan would still allow voters to approve or reject tax increases under TABOR, which limits state spending based on inflation and population growth.
The proposal was making its way through the Legislature as a concurrent resolution, asking for a referendum. But Romanoff said he will ask the House State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee Monday to postpone a vote on the resolution until the legislative session ends this week, effectively killing the measure.
Instead, Romanoff will try to garner support for the same plan and will need about 76,000 signatures to get it on the November ballot.
Romanoff’s plan has met opposition from Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Douglas Bruce, who helped author TABOR in 1992, which later became part of the state Constitution.
“In an act of calculated cynical subterfuge, they are going to destroy the tabor limits so we can go back to the old days of unlimited state spending,” said Bruce, R-Colorado Springs. “It’s laughable how arrogant liberals can be.”
Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, said he doubts Romanoff’s plan will be supported by voters.
“I think he’ll be hard-pressed to sell it to taxpayers for the same reasons he had a hard time at the Capitol,” he said. “During hard economic times, the government should tighten its belt, not repeal spending limits.”
Penry also sponsored a measure to reform the state budget, which has had legislators trying to keep spending under the TABOR limit, while at the same time funding education through Amendment 23.
Penry said his plan, which failed last week, would have redirected the annual one-percent increases in education funding required by Amendment 23 to roads and a rainy-day fund after the mandate for increases ends in 2010.
Among Romanoff’s supporters at the Capitol for the initiative is Sen. Steve Johnson, a Fort Collins Republican who co-sponsored the speaker’s successful attempt to get Referendum C on the ballot. That measure, which voters approved in 2005, allowed the state to keep TABOR tax surpluses for five years.
Johnson said voters need to approve the initiative because the state will deal with conflicting mandates again once Referendum C expires.
“We’ll be back in a situation where it will be difficult to maintain state services,” Johnson said. “Higher education and transportation will be the big losers if revenue starts to fall and if we don’t pass the initiative and have a rainy day fund.”
Johnson and Romanoff say they’ve already gained support outside of the Capitol for initiative.
Romanoff said supporters include the Colorado Children’s Campaign, AARP in Colorado, the Colorado Association of School Boards, and Republican state Attorney General John Suthers.
