Bell Policy Center, Colorado Fiscal Institute file amicus in case challenging Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Wade Buchanan
The Bell Policy Center
303-297-0456, ext. 221
Carol Hedges
Colorado Fiscal Institute
720-379-3019, ext. 221
The Bell Policy Center and the Colorado Fiscal Institute (CFI) yesterday filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. The brief explains how TABOR works and some of the effects it has had in Colorado since voters approved it in 1992.
The brief is one of six filed Wednesday on behalf of the plaintiffs in the case of Kerr v. Hickenlooper in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pro bono counsel from the law firm of Arnold and Porter LLP prepared the brief on behalf of the Bell and CFI. All briefs filed in the case are also available at http://www.taborcase.org.
The Bell-CFI brief concentrates on three areas of the budget and policymaking: higher education, K-12 education and transportation. It argues that TABOR has “forced a fundamental change in how the General Assembly can legislate,” requiring it to divorce important policy decisions from any serious consideration of how to pay for public systems. It also argues TABOR has resulted in less transparent and less effective government at all levels in Colorado.
“We thought it was important to provide the court with basic information about what TABOR is and how it has worked,” said Wade Buchanan, president of the Bell Policy Center. “The other briefs cover important points of law in the case, but we wanted to give the judges a broader context.”
“TABOR affects state and local budgeting and investments in a myriad of ways that are not immediately apparent from the language of the provision,” said Carol Hedges, director of the Colorado Fiscal Institute. “This brief highlights some the less transparent effects in order to help the court get a fuller picture of the role TABOR plays.”
The brief demonstrates the impact TABOR has had in three key areas of the state budget – higher education, K-12 education and transportation.
Higher education
From the brief: “… Funding for higher education, a ‘discretionary’ service, has dropped precipitously since TABOR’s enactment. Accordingly, Colorado higher education has been forced to engage in various TABOR-sanctioned fiscal tactics to simply stay afloat.”
Facts cited in the brief:
• Colorado ranks last in the nation in state support of major public research universities per enrolled student.
• Tuition has grown at an average of 10 percent annually for the past eight years across Colorado’s higher education institutions.
K-12 education
From the brief: “Colorado’s provision of public K-12 education is in a state of funding disarray as TABOR … has squeezed local funding and forced the state to fund an ever-increasing share. … TABOR has constrained the ability of the General Assembly and school boards to effectively, appropriately, and timely respond to this crisis.”
Facts cited in the brief:
• The average K-12 teacher in the state earns $5,200 less today (adjusted for inflation) than in 1992, the year TABOR passed.
• Colorado ranks 42th in the nation in spending per pupil.
Transportation
From the brief: “TABOR ushered in stagnation for transportation funding in Colorado, leaving the state unable to keep pace with its rapidly growing transportation needs.”
Facts cited in the brief:
• Colorado ranks 46th in the nation for highway funding
• The average state spends nearly $1 billion more on highways on a per capita basis than Colorado.
In its conclusion, the brief summarizes the fundamental way that TABOR essentially removed governing from the job description for Colorado legislators: “TABOR ties the hands of the General Assembly. Representatives now must make
decisions, not based on substantive dialog about various policy and budgetary considerations, but based solely on what TABOR allows them to do. That is, under TABOR, the General Assembly must divorce its budget decisions from any serious consideration of unmet needs that might warrant additional revenue.”
Joe Watt
Communications director
The Bell Policy Center
303-297-0456, ext. 217
