Across the country, Americans are suffering at the hands of out-of-control state governments and spending.
But guess what? There exists an immunization that helps relieve some of the pain associated with these sorts of fiscal calamities.
The remedy is already working wonders in Colorado. So, one might ask, why, rather than exporting the treatment, are local Colorado officials are in the process of killing it?
Colorado has enjoyed more than a decade of above-average economic growth. The state, with its low taxes and highly educated workforce, is regularly cited as one the best places in the country to do business and live. Colorado ranks high in level of income and consumption and, not surprisingly, also managed to avoid some of the recession’s brute force.
Colorado’s dynamic economy relies on a multitude of factors, but none of those factors happens to be the presence of wise governors or legislators. Sensible governance is made compulsory by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) and other state spending limits — which keeps government lean and responsible, yet also allow the state the flexibility to ask voters for more funding.
Now, politicians abhor few things more than the unpleasant task of justifying their spending to the riff-raff. Even more distasteful is dealing with bothersome spending limits that retard an elected official’s transcendent powers to help you out.
Accordingly, the bellyaching over spending caps in Colorado is ceaseless. How anyone but a shyster politician could argue that allowing a budget to grow 6 percent over the previous year’s total (and more if you count transportation and capital projects) is unfair is yet to be determined. Few Colorado families or businesses, I am relatively sure, enjoy that kind of latitude.
Yet, this week — only days after California voters overwhelmingly rejected their state’s bid at economic anarchy — Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter signed legislation to eliminate Colorado’s spending limit, which henceforth will be referred to as the “Californiacation.”
For those Coloradans who still see usefulness in fiscal prudence, John Morse, a Democratic senator from Colorado Springs, believes in you: “In the late 1400s, very few people believed the Earth was round,” he explained. “By the early 1500s, we knew what was going on.”
Colorado voters, treated like the dim-witted Middle Ages peasantry of the 1400s, need to get their heads on straight and build a bridge to 16th century, I agree. Morse’s fight for unaccountable and disconnected government screams “1500.”
Once spending limits are gone, Californiacation can begin. Having already raised property taxes — with the help of friendly courts — Colorado’s patrons will have extra billions at their disposal. And now that the Democratic-controlled legislature has unleashed its collective imagination and started referring to taxes as “fees,” billions more will head to Denver.
Gov. Ritter has said he would like to revisit the TABOR question in 2011 — bravely, a year after he runs for a second term.
What can be done with TABOR? Well, it can be eliminated. And when Morse and Ritter and other demagogues of doom push Colorado toward the Age of Enlightenment, they won’t tell citizens this: Colorado governments spent almost $26 billion for the 4.3 million people living in the state in 2000. In 2008, they are spending nearly $42 billion for 4.7 million people. Imagine what might have occurred without TABOR. Or just look at California today.
In truth, TABOR forces elected officials to justify every penny they spend and constrains them to rational growth. In many ways, it cleans up government by stripping bureaucrats of power — and nothing, I assume, is more bothersome to them.
More immediately, TABOR has helped insulate the average Colorado taxpayer from the disasters of overspending and mitigate a recessionary economy.
Other states, serious about protecting taxpayers, should take notice — while they still can.
E-mail David Harsanyi at dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
