Infused with the energy of 500 enthusiastic volunteers, a landmark campaign to untangle Colorado’s state finances — without raising taxes — seems headed for the Nov. 4 state ballot.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, sparkplug of the drive, said more than 100,000 signatures already have been gathered for their initiative.
Just 76,000 valid signatures are needed to put such measures before Colorado voters. But because some signatures may be disqualified for technical reasons, the reformers are making a final press aiming to collect a total of 120,000 signatures before Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline by which they must be turned into the Secretary of State’s office.
The campaign’s surge is an amazing turnabout for a late-starting drive once given little chance to make the ballot. Romanoff, a Democrat, and Sen. Steve Johnson of Fort Collins, a Republican, worked throughout the entire legislative session to put the reform measure on the ballot as a referendum — a process that requires a two-thirds vote of both the Senate and the House.
When the legislature adjourned May 7 without approving the reform, its backers had little time and almost no money to launch a petition drive.
But Romanoff, aided by state Treasurer Cary Kennedy and a host of allies in the civic and business communities, charged ahead. (For more information on the initiative and its backers, visit .)
The reform drive aims at cleaning up the Colorado Constitution by removing both the conflicting revenue limits of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and the spending mandates of the education funding Amendment 23, while creating a rainy-day fund reserve for the state.
Labeled SAFE, for Savings Account for Education, the reform permanently extends the Referendum C timeout from TABOR limits approved by voters in 2005 to allow the state to keep whatever revenue it raises in the future without increasing taxes — while guaranteeing that you have the right to vote on all tax increases.
Given the surge in voting expected this year, backers think this may be their best shot to change the way Colorado budgets its money. They may be right.
Reform is badly needed and long overdue.
