Letter to the Editor: TABOR cuts restrict critical state funding

The Article 14 proposal is the same as Colorado’s so-called Taxpayers Bill of Rights, or TABOR.

Both amendments place a cap on funding for critical services such as education, health care, public safety and capital construction.

Last November, Colorado citizens voted to suspend our TABOR cap for five years. If this TABOR suspension had not passed, the state would have had to cut more than $350 million from its general fund budget. Higher education would have born the brunt of the cuts. And there would have been no money for transportation or capital maintenance.

More than 1,100 organizations endorsed suspending the TABOR limit.

TABOR was a proven failure in Colorado. Don’t make the same mistake in Missouri. Between now and May 7, you may be asked to sign a petition supporting the Article 14 constitutional amendment.

If you care about the quality of life in Missouri and ensuring a strong, healthy economy, don’t sign the Article 14 petition.

Learn from our mistake – you don’t want to live with the consequences of this measure as we have in Colorado for the past 13 years.

A broad-based coalition, Partners to Protect Missouri’s Future” is opposed to Article 14. Visit their Web site for more information: www.protectmo.org.

—Brad Young, Former Republican Chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, Colorado Legislature

Official Ballot Language

The Missouri secretary of state’s office on March 31 certified an official ballot title submitted by Missourians in Charge. It reads: “Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to only allow an increase in the total amount of legislative appropriations (excluding federal funds and certain other funds) to be expended in a fiscal year based on a change in inflation and population, unless a legislatively predetermined higher level is approved by a two-thirds vote of the legislature and the change is passed in a statewide election; and to require any revenues in excess of appropriations to fully fund two additional legislatively controlled special funds before any such excess revenues will be refunded to individual taxpayers?

The estimated fiscal impact on state government is approximately $280 million for fiscal year 2008. The impact on state government for future years is unknown. The impact on local government is unknown.”