During Gov. John Hickenlooper’s State of the State address earlier this month, he urged the General Assembly to provide Coloradans “with a fiscal impact statement on the effect of proposed amendments to the state constitution in order to make the most thoughtful decisions.”
What was he talking about? House Bill 1057, it turns out. It’s a bipartisan measure that would accelerate the timetable under which legislative staff estimates the fiscal impact of a ballot measure on the state budget.
The impact might be positive, of course, if the measure raises revenues. But it could also be negative — a huge unfunded liability. And the idea is that voters ought to know about this earlier than they now do — in fact, before they sign a circulating petition.
Currently, legislative staff provides an “estimate of fiscal impact” in the Blue Book that every household receives shortly before the election. HB 1057 would accelerate that estimate so that it is established before petitions are circulated — with a two-sentence estimate then appearing on the petitions themselves.
“We think this is about fiscal transparency and letting people know what it is that they’re voting for,” says House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, who is one of the sponsors.
And he adds that it is not an attempt to discourage initiatives. “It doesn’t change the amount of signatures, where signatures come from, who signs, who can’t sign. It basically is just bringing more fiscal transparency to the process,” DelGrosso told us.
Admittedly, some measures’ total economic impact on Colorado is far more worrisome than their fiscal impact on the state budget. Last fall’s Proposition 105, the anti-GMO labeling measure that voters handily defeated, is an example. It could have hurt Colorado’s agricultural economy in significant ways, yet the Blue Book only discussed its modest impact on state spending.
Still, other measures would pose a major expense for the state, a fact voters should know.
A number of other states already have such a requirement. For that matter, the legislature itself can’t move a referendum to voters without an estimate of its fiscal impact in hand.
HB 1057 is a modest but useful measure that should attract broad bipartisan support.
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