TABLING TABOR

Republican Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado says he led the state’s largest tax-relief package in its history, cutting sales, personal-income and capital-gains taxes while eliminating the marriage penalty. Conservative publications admire him, according to his web site, with plaudits from the Wall Street Journal, the Economist and by columnist Robert Novak. National Review magazine called him “the best governor in America.” But Gov. Owens has a problem called TABOR.

TABOR is Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, a constitutional provision approved 13 years ago that limits revenues to state government, with revenues collected beyond its cap sent back to voters unless voters approve a measure to exceed the cap. According to the Denver Post, Colorado’s state services have been ravaged in recent years, and under TABOR those services would have to be further cut even while sending $476 million back to taxpayers. Gov. Owens’ spokesman, Dan Hopkins, told the Post, “For the first time, TABOR has become the problem.”

The solution, the governor’s office urges, is for voters to pass Referendum C, which would allow the state to keep about $3.1 billion over five years it would otherwise send back to taxpayers. “Unless Referendum C passes, in fiscal year 2006-07, the state will be in the unenviable position of having to refund $476 million while simultaneously making significant cuts in services,” Mr. Hopkins said. While considering this referendum, Colorado voters will also contemplate approving $2.1 billion in loans to pay to repair crumbling infrastructure.

The vicissitudes of TABOR have been reviewed often. It began as a success largely because of rapid growth in the state (nearly three times Maine’s rate between 1990 and 2000). But when that growth stopped and two new industries – electronics and telecommunications – stopped growing a couple of years ago, TABOR went from being a tourniquet to a noose around government. The result can be seen in a respected Republican governor saying enough – the state needs to spend more.

This is not merely to point out another state’s misfortune. We hope Colorado solves its fiscal challenges thoughtfully and swiftly in a way that best suits its needs. But it is to emphasize that Maine is considering a citizen’s initiative that would impose a taxpayer’s bill of rights here, limiting government with similar sorts of restrictions that Colorado, even after a decade of significant growth, finds difficult to accept. A couple of years ago, before Colorado discovered itself short of accessible funding, with crumbling schools and highways, yet at the mercy of a crude spending restriction, supporters of the taxpayer’s bill of rights urged everyone to look to that state for inspiration.

That turns out now to be good advice.