Each year Colorado lawmakers grapple with the effects of TABOR, without taking on the constitutional amendment itself. (File photo by Joey Bunch/The Denver Post)
The Taxpayer Bill of Rights was supposed to keep money in people’s pockets, but 80 percent of Coloradans actually pay more in taxes to supplement their local schools, according to a study released Tuesday by the Colorado Futures Center at Colorado State University.
“Since the early 1990s, Colorado has enacted layers of reform in pursuit of two conflicting goals – lower property taxes and well-funded public schools,” said Phyllis Resnick, lead economist at the center and lead author of a paper the research for the nonpartisan Lincoln Institute,
“The result is greater inequality and inconsistency, and surprisingly, a greater tax burden for most Coloradans.”
That findings contrasts sharply with research and at Independence Institute in Denver.
“The challenge Colorado faces is serious and
deserves real answers, not budget gimmicks and
phantom savings. TABOR is not the cause of the
problem, but rather has averted more serious
problem,” a 2005 Independence Institute issue paper titled
Colorado voters passed the TABOR constitutional amendment in 1992 to limit taxation and restrain government growth with spending limits, revenue caps and mandatory returns to taxpayers when limits are exceeded. Any tax increase has to go to the voters, under TABOR. While supporters contend it protects taxpayers, critics say it limits investments in schools, transportation and other needs for Coloradans.
A new civic organization made up of high-profile political and civic leaders will put a keen eye on TABOR when it . The group, headed by former University of Denver Chancellor Dan Ritchie, is called Building a Better Colorado.
A 40-stop tour across the state starts Sept. 12 at the Club 20 fall meeting in Grand Junction.
“Most people think of TABOR as a tax and expenditure limit and the reason they get to vote on tax increases,” stated Charles Brown, the Center for Colorado’s Economic Future. “While this may be true, most people don’t realize that TABOR is comprised of several different limits and other provisions that most people don’t know about. Our study examines how two of these lesser known limits affect the distributions of property tax burdens and state aid for Colorado’s 178 school districts.”
In a media release, CSU cited these findings from the study:
Taxpayers in 74 school districts – representing 81 percent of the state’s population – now pay more in school property taxes than they would if the Taxpayer Bill of Rights were never enacted.
In most districts where property taxes have decreased, a greater share of school costs are now paid out of the state’s general fund.
Among the 21 school district with the lowest school property taxes, residential taxpayers have enjoyed property tax reductions from 59 percent to 97 percent since 1993, and nine are in the top quartile for household income in the state.
Disparities in school funding among districts have increased with the more frequent use of override levies, particularly in school districts that have benefited from lower base property taxes subsidized by greater state aid
.
