TABOR/budget fix punted back to voters
If Colorado wants to clean up the constitutional web of spending limits and mandates, the state's voters will have to approve it on November's ballot.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who assembled a proposal to roll back spending limitations in TABOR and spending mandates in Amendment 23, couldn't muster the votes in the legislature to put it on the ballot and will instead back a citizens' initiative which would have the same effect.
John Ensslin reports:
"I think it's going to be easier to gather 76,000 valid signatures than it was to get two-thirds of the Senate," Romanoff said.By doing so, Romanoff hopes to reassemble the same coalition that helped pass Referendum C, which voters approved in November 2005. Ref C enabled the state government to hang on to surplus revenues during a five-year "time out" from the 1992 Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.
Earlier in the session, Romanoff proposed SAFE, the "Savings Account For Education," which would have lifted spending restrictions imposed by
TABOR while also repealing Amendment 23's mandated spending on education.
That measure hit a dead end Friday when a committee chairman postponed a vote, saying it would be better to let the session end this week without risking the bill being killed by the entire legislature.
Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, chairman of the House State Veterans & Military Affairs Committee, argued that a defeat in the House might harm the chances of a citizens' initiative.
Is Romanoff's plan a reasonable way to balance the spending limits and mandates in the state constitution? Do you agree with Douglas Bruce that it's a conspiracy to gut TABOR? If the measure gets to the ballot, would you vote for it?
So why do Republicans and Democrats gang up on Douglas Bruce? It's about the money, duh. Members of both parties, with the exception of Douglas Bruce, have lost their focus on being stewards of public monies. It's true: each and every one of those beating up on Bruce have personal agendas for feeding from the public trough. Only Douglas Bruce has questioned the rempant waste of tax dollars, and tried to do something about it.
Posted by wake up! on May 7, 2008 9:17 AMHey jay. Your carefully crafted typing styles for each alias are merging again. You tired, dude?
Posted by on May 5, 2008 7:45 PMmake that "need to dismantle Tabor" on my last post.
Posted by Ben on May 5, 2008 1:05 PMBUT IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Cracks me up every time... on May 5, 2008 11:30 AMRomanoff's plan will gut TABOR--bet on it. The only reason Romanoff is supporting the end-run around gutting TABOR by setting up yet another "initiative" to the voters is so the media can, as usual, be complicit in pushing more and more tax increases. It happened with Refs C and D, and with the huge Denver tax increases Hickenlooper blew huge amounts of OUR TAX dollars on. Go ahead and keep sleeping, sheeple. You'll be taking home less and less, and getting less and less services for your hard-earned money, UNLESS and UNTIL we see more accountability and exactly WHERE EVERY SINGLE PENNY IS GOING.
Posted by Someday you'll thank Douglas Bruce for TABOR on May 5, 2008 11:13 AMDR - a correction: the Red Wings have a GOOD goalie and a GREAT D. The Avs were definitely overmatched. I am now officially a Penquin fan (again), and I'll tell you what...the Wings had better watch out!
Posted by ML on May 5, 2008 9:04 AMRomanoff and cohorts need TABOR so they can bring in more "illiterate peasants" into Colorado. Importing poverty into the state ain't free you know.
Posted by Ben 's Border Street on May 5, 2008 8:51 AMDouglas Bruce speaks the truth about TABOR. There are plenty of Republicans and Democrats BOTH who want unlimited taxes and unlimited spending, because they all have their big mitts in the tax dollars cookie jar--i.e., betcha they have direct and indirect ties to plenty of capital projects that require billions in state contract spending--which fund their businesses! Rest assured that they're in the legislature for one thing, and one thing only: to figure out how to get rich, or at the very least, make a very handsome living from their networking at the state capitol.
And Romanoff's plan appears to be something that will only cost more money, not less. What will happen is this: taxes will increase to the point that those who have worked all their lives will be bankrupted by taxes alone, and end up losing everything they ever worked for.
Posted by on April 30, 2008 7:55 PMBullshit alert: jay @ 12:48
Posted by on April 30, 2008 3:45 PMSorry for being off-topic here, but I wanted to find a current thread to send "Congrats" to Tree for the Red Wings (upcoming) win - as I mentioned, superior puck handling, great goalie, good D, and solid O. Go get the Cup!
Posted by DR on April 30, 2008 12:59 PMDoug Bruce.
Is it ego?
That's a good question.
Maybe we should ask him why there are both republicans and democrats rallying behind a movement with which he disagrees.
Posted by jay on April 30, 2008 12:48 PMCaptain,
How do you know Doug Bruce has a massive ego? Have you ever spoken with him?
Romanoff's plan doesn't gut TABOR--it keeps the most important part of it: that tax hikes go before voters before implementation. If anything, it respects the best part of TABOR--putting government back in the hands of the individuals--and fixes what was wrong with it. Namely, a ratcheting down of our state funds in such a way that will cause our bridges to falter, our roads to become impassable, our parks to wither, our kids' educations to suffer, and our overall quality of life to nosedive. That's the damage that TABOR threatens. It wasn't the point of the original bill, but it's the result of it. And we have to deal with that, despite the damage it might do to Doug Bruce's massive ego.
Posted by Captain America on April 30, 2008 10:31 AMIt's easy .... the conservative thinks government should have limits and not piss away the taxpayer's money, and the liberal thinks the taxpayer's money belongs to the government .... that's why we need both parties, so that one balances out the other ... hopefully
Posted by Justa Realist on April 30, 2008 10:07 AMThanks Doug Bruce! Keep TABOR. Get rid of Romanoff.
Posted by Ben-Former Democrat on April 30, 2008 10:00 AM
