A panel at the University of Denver on Monday recommended sweeping changes to how Coloradans think about government, encouraging a bottom-up system in which residents have more input on what their tax dollars buy.
“Government needs to be about more than delivering services at prices driven by costs of production,” the university’s Strategic Issues Panel on State Government concludes in a report released Monday. “It should focus on creating value for citizens.”
As part of the shift, the panel recommends repealing Amendment 23 — a provision that requires school funding to increase — as well as large portions of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which restrains spending growth.
It also recommends creating an independent “Taxpayer Value Council” to provide information to the public. And the report says both K-12 and higher education funding should be shifted away from giving money to the institutions and toward giving stipends directly to students to spend at the public schools of their choosing.
“Colorado’s institutions of higher education should be allowed to succeed or fail based upon the value they create for students,” the report states.
The report is the result of a year of study by the panel — made up of 20 business, education and community leaders — into the fiscal instability of Colorado’s government. Colorado’s general fund revenue declined by more than $1 billion between 2008 and 2010, which prompted deep budget cuts, the report notes.
DU professor James Griesemer, the panel’s chairman, said the solution is to give Colorado residents more control, letting them have real input on what they think is worth their tax money and what isn’t.
The report does not address whether taxes should be increased.
“By providing citizens with meaningful information, they can have a thoughtful discussion about whether taxes should go up or down,” Griesemer said.
Griesemer said the panel’s report would be distributed to Colorado lawmakers, but it is uncertain whether legislators will act on its ideas.
Colorado House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said he supports more citizen engagement. But he said citizens already can have an active role in Colorado government through the initiative process, and he said he is opposed to any effort to weaken TABOR.
Still, McNulty praised the panel’s work.
“It’s important different organizations take a look at how state government operates,” he said.
A spokesman for Gov. John Hickenlooper also said the report will be useful as the state plans for the future.
“It’s an important document that deserves public scrutiny and attention for the insights in makes on the state budget and the hard choices facing Colorado,” the spokesman, Eric Brown, wrote in an e-mail.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
