Colo. official urges caution

By DOUG HARLOW
Staff Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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WATERVILLE -- The so-called Taxpayers Bill of Rights, TABOR, did not work in Colorado -- the only state in the nation with such an initiative -- and it will not work in Maine.

That was the message Wednesday night from Steve Johnson, the assistant minority leader of the Colorado state Senate, who worked to get his home state's version of the initiative temporarily repealed.

"TABOR severely reduced needed services in the state of Colorado," Johnson said via cell phone Wednesday night, running late for a lecture at Colby College. "Maine's proposal is worse."

Colorado voters adopted the TABOR measure in 1992.

Maine's citizen initiative is Question 1 on the Nov. 7 ballot.

The initiative in Maine would limit increases in state and local government spending to the rate of inflation, plus population growth and would require voter approval for all tax and fee increases.

If a town wants to spend above its cap, it would be required to bring the matter to voters. For school spending, the limit would be set by student enrollment, plus inflation.

Cities and towns would be allowed to override spending limits by getting a two-thirds majority vote from the governing body -- a town council or board of selectmen -- then majority support from voters.

Johnson said education was hit the hardest with the passage of TABOR in his state, but other services also took it on the chin.

"Obviously (the Colby students) are interested in higher education -- TABOR forced significant cuts in K-12 education, higher education, the community colleges, health care and transportation," he said.

"Colorado was 35th in the nation in support of higher education.

"In 2001 at the beginning of the recession and nine years into TABOR -- we were 48th in the nation, that amounts to cuts of 30-40 percent of student aid, so tuition obviously had to increase to make up for that."

And go up it did, he said. Tuition increased at Colorado University by 31 percent from 2002-05 because of TABOR, he said.

Johnson was elected in 2002 and was the Senate sponsor of the resolution that led Colorado voters in 2005 to suspend the spending limits imposed by TABOR.

Hammering home the lesson learned in Colorado in terms of the impact on higher education, Johnson said Colorado University lost 16 tenured professors in 2003 because they were recruited to other schools offering higher salaries.

Since 2002, the university has closed six academic programs and has lost 286 faculty and staff.

"It is predicted that if TABOR had continued in Colorado, by 2010 they would have had to sell its public universities," Johnson said in advance promotional material.

"It was more affordable for Colorado students to go to the University of Wyoming because in-state tuition was so high."

As a final cautionary note Wednesday night, Johnson said Colorado voters agreed to eliminate a "downward ratchet" in the TABOR formula which actually shrinks the state's ability to provide needed services when revenues fall.

"Maine's is worse," he said. "We repealed that ratchet portion of TABOR.

"If we had your proposal we wouldn't have been able to fix it."

Johnson is a veterinarian who owned an animal hospital in Loveland, Colo., for 16 years. He currently teaches at Heritage Christian High School in Fort Collins.

Doug Harlow -- 861-9244

dharlow@centralmaine.com