DENVER—Colorado lawmakers introduced a plan Thursday to eliminate a cap on spending, a move they say will allow them to quickly restore funding for essential programs once the economy begins to recover.
Changes to tax policy usually require voter approval. But Rep. Don Marostica, a Republican from Loveland who sits on the Joint Budget Committee, says lawmakers believe they have the authority to change the law themselves.
The proposal would eliminate a spending cap known as the Arveschoug (AR’-ve-scow)-Bird limit, after its 1991 sponsors. The cap restricts annual spending increases to 6 percent for big-ticket items like higher education, criminal justice, schools, corrections and health care.
Plan supporters say their measure won’t ease the current budget crisis because there simply isn’t enough money available to reach the limit. They also argue current law will restrict the state’s ability to spend the estimated $2 billion Colorado is expected to receive from the federal stimulus package.
The plan will allow the state to spend more money, more quickly, on top programs when the economy improves, backers say.
“Without this bill, Colorado families will suffer more than is necessary from this recession,” said Sen. John Morse, a Democrat from Colorado Springs who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate.
The proposal didn’t sit well with some Republicans, who consider Colorado’s tax and spending limits a covenant with voters.
House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said any changes to tax policy must be approved by voters under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights put in the state constitution in 1992.
“Why rub citizens’ faces in it and say we’re going to do it anyway?” May said.
Douglas Bruce, a former state lawmaker who helped draft TABOR, said he expects a lawsuit if legislators change the law without voter approval. He said legislators have abided by its restrictions for 16 years and it will be hard for them to explain now why they think those limits are voluntary.
“They’re hoping people have amnesia,” Bruce said.
Jean Dubofsky, a former member of the state Supreme Court and a board member at the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, a public policy think tank, said legislative legal advisers made a mistake nearly two decades ago when they assumed TABOR and Arveschoug-Bird were both limits on spending. She said the law told lawmakers how to spend money but didn’t set limits and won’t affect the amount of money the state can spend.
“By accepting this unnecessary restriction on its authority, the Legislature has allowed its hands to be tied when it comes to fixing Colorado’s fiscal mess,” Dubofsky said.
