Denver November 2004 Election
The question before us is not whether we will be voting on possible changes to TABOR, Amendment 23, and the Gallagher amendment next fall, we will. The question is what type of changes have a chance of passing, according to an editorial in today's Rocky Mountain News [December 16, 2003, "Constitutional convention? That's passing the buck"]. The Rocky editors do not like the idea of a constitutional convention to sort it out. From the editorial, "The biggest challenge lawmakers face in the coming weeks will be to rein in their disgust with TABOR (on the political left) and Amendment 23 (on the right) in order to reach an agreement that appeals to a broad spectrum of the state's political leadership - and thus a wide swath of voters as well. Don't ask for the moon. Don't throw in the towel with a call for a constitutional convention. Just give voters a reasonable plan and trust them to come through." I don't think that disgust is the correct description. TABOR is terrible for state and local government when revenues decline.
Govenor Owens intends to assist the legislature in their coming struggle in dealing with TABOR, Amendment 23, and the Gallagher Amendment, according to the Denver Post [December 16, 2003, "State's snarl of amendments may land back in voters' laps"]. From the article, "TABOR ties revenue to population growth and inflation. Revenue that exceeds its formula must be refunded to citizens. The amendment also mandates that if the state's revenues decline because of a recession, for instance, legislators can't return to pre-recession levels of spending. They can increase spending only incrementally. The mechanism is known as the "ratchet effect" because it clamps down on spending during lean economic times. Amendment 23 says increases in K-12 education funding must be based on student population and the rate of inflation plus 1 percent. Those two requirements, one that limits spending and one that mandates increases in it, have made balancing the state budget difficult in tight economic times. Gallagher limits the property tax residents pay to 45 percent of the total collected. Owens said voters' November rejection of changes to the amendment makes it a non-issue."
6:27:04 AM 
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