TABOR. If that acronym doesn't send shivers down your spine then you ain't payin' enough attention.
As many of you know, Colorado is in the throes of a ballot intiative this November to provide for a five year timeout from the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights-mandated rebate to taxpayers when there is an overage of revenues over expenditures in the state budget. For the last couple of years, Coloradans have not received rebates because of the Bush recession effect on the state budget.
The Constitutionally-enacted state budget disaster has further emboldened the "starve the beast" mentality of Grover Norquist's ilk to financially punish public healthcare, K-12 education, higher education, and basic governmental responsibilities, like road construction and pension plans for governmental employees. The ruse is "smaller government = better government" rather than their more nefarious plans to privatize government services for their own profit and control.
Unfortunately for Colorado residents, we are the lab rats for the national pro-TABOR groups coming to a state near you.
Beginning September 1, I will be writing a series on TABOR, what it is, what it isn't, and the money trail behind it at
Unbossed.
If your state is facing a TABOR ballot initiative in 2006, please leave me a note here and your contact info (if it's not in your dKos profile). I'm also seeking co-writers on this subject at Unbossed and cross-posting opportunities to help progressives fight the good fight against TABOR in their home states.
Because of the national aspect of this story, I will be pitching this to Unbossed's contact at Reuters among other media outlets. TABOR is a convoluted subject and most voters are pretty reflexively anti-tax unless given a compelling reason to support an initiative.
Which is all the more reason we need to untangle the web of lies created by Norquist, et al., with a progressive fiscally responsible perspective on shared sacrifice by invoking a pro-America, pay it forward attitude. This country didn't become great nor did we weather terrible historical events with the NeoCon "me, me, me" philosophy.
Can you help?