Amendment 59 may be last on Colorado’s overcrowded ballot, but don’t overlook it. It’s critical to the state’s future and could shape Colorado for decades to come.
If approved, Amendment 59, known as the Savings Account for Education initiative, or SAFE, would usher in the most sweeping changes to the way Colorado budgets its money since the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights was approved in 1992.
It is not a tax increase. In fact, it perpetuates the constitutional ban on state or local governments raising taxes without a vote of the people.
Amendment 59 is a blueprint for fiscal responsibility that reconciles conflicting mandates in the 1992 TABOR amendment and 2000’s Amendment 23. Those mandates now force the state to increase K-12 spending by preset formulas even if falling revenues force all other programs to be gutted. Meanwhile, TABOR prevents the state from tucking away surplus revenues in good years to carry schools, highways and other programs through the inevitable lean years.
The best reforms are simple. No one can easily explain the eye-glazing, 2,000-word TABOR formulas. But, to really simplify matters, consider the biblical story of Joseph, who interpreted Pharoah’s dream and warned that Egypt would see seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. He then urged Pharaoh to store grain during the good years, saving the people of Egypt from starvation when the lean years came.
Unfortunately, Colorado can’t even follow this rule.
TABOR’s rigid formulas require all revenue surpluses — even those gleaned without tax increases — to be given out in rebates. That means our granaries are already bare when the economy turns sour, even though Amendment 23 requires continuous spending increases in public school budgets during those same lean years.
A constitution that requires continuous tax cuts and continuous spending increases is madness. Colorado needs to start tucking away our surplus funds in good years into a rainy- day fund to pay for education and other needs in bad years. And that’s exactly what Amendment 59 does.
SAFE eliminates all Amendment 23 spending mandates after 2010, while allowing the state to retain all revenues it collects without raising taxes.
Referendum C, which expires in 2010, didn’t touch Amendment 23. This does, making it the type of comprehensive plan Colorado needs.
It also boosts existing reserve funds from the current inadequate 4 percent to 12 percent. It restricts the legislature from raiding those funds by requiring a two-thirds vote or demonstrated recession to tap these vital reserves. And it prohibits state and local governments from raising taxes without a vote of the people.
Your family tries to set aside a few dollars for a rainy day. Why shouldn’t the state?
Vote “yes” on Amendment 59.
