Taxpayer bill of rights question

[bydand]

Just a quick question for those of you who live in a State that has passed "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" legsilation. The State I am now living in (Maine) has one of these on the ballot coming up in Nov. Of course both sides are slugging it out with all the usual Doom & Gloom messages and ads. The Pro-bill and the Anti-bill groups have brought in people from Colorado to defend their stand and I was just wondering if anyone here has some input on how this type of bill has affected their State. I want pros and cons if you can give some. Education? Public services? Public Safety? Roads? Snow Removal? etc... you get the picture. It is kind of difficult to weed out any helpful information from individuals who are basing their entire stand on projected outcomes from such a proposition passing, and finding someone to back them up who may be in the vast minority in their own views of how it has affected them or their home State. Thanks! I figure there are enough people on this forum to get a better overall feel for the matter. And yes, I have left out my own personal thoughts one way or the other, in order not to color the initial responses.

 

[Kacey]

The TABOR law in Colorado is a constant drag on our economy. The person who wrote this law and got it on the ballot - a man named Douglas Bruce - is on a self-declared crusade to further limit tax expenditures, and does not see the damage his law is doing to the state. When the economy was in an upswing, we saw little to be concerned about - now that it is not so strong, the effects are clear: the state could not save money from years with tax income higher than expenditures because all such overages had to be returned to the taxpayers. This has left Colorado with very little in the way of reserves, and a significantly reactive, rather than proactive, budget process. Ever since then, the thrust has been to find ways around TABOR, because of the drag it places on the economy - education (public schools and universities are both affected) and health care are the two biggest areas affected statewide, although other areas are also affected depending on where you live. Do NOT vote for such initiatives - there are better ways to control your state's economy than this, at least in my opinion.

A google search on "colorado TABOR douglas bruce" provides a great deal of information.

 

[michaeledward]

The proposal seems to be restricting the legislatures ability to do its work. I suppose that is the design and intent.

In order to raise revenue, the bill states:

A. The measure must be approved by a vote of 2/3 of all the members of each House of the Legislature or 2/3 of the members of the legislative body of a quasi-municipal agency or a local district; and
B. Except as provided in subsection 2, the measure must be approved by a majority of the voters in the jurisdiction as described in subsection 3.

A two thirds majority of the legislature and a majority vote. That is a pretty high bar.

And, they lock in the definition of revenue changes as this ...

A. Enacts a new tax or fee;
B. Increases the rate or expands the base of an existing tax or fee;
C. Reduces benefits or eligibility under the Business Equipment Tax Refund program established in Title 36, chapter 915 without providing the same level of benefits and eligibility under a comparable program or without providing a 100% property tax exemption for property eligible for reimbursement under Title 36, chapter 915;
D. Repeals or reduces any tax exemption, credit or refund; or
E. Extends an expiring tax or fee increase.

In this language, clause C, D, and E seem troubling to me. These clauses assume all prior legislation - all prior tax breaks, credits or exemptions - we executed in a completely upstanding manner. There is no way to review the earlier works of the legislative body.

So, if LL Bean received a big tax break to keep there offices in Maine, with the idea and agreement among all parties that this break would be regularly revisited ... this law states that it can no longer be revisited. Now, I have no knowledge of anything like that ever taking place ... but, situations change. And this law seems to prevent recognition of that axiom.

Speaking to you from Tax Free New Hampshire (you wanna see my property tax bill? - Tax Free My ***).

Good Luck

 

[Marginal]

Just a quick question for those of you who live in a State that has passed "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" legsilation. The State I am now living in (Maine) has one of these on the ballot coming up in Nov. Of course both sides are slugging it out with all the usual Doom & Gloom messages and ads. The Pro-bill and the Anti-bill groups have brought in people from Colorado to defend their stand and I was just wondering if anyone here has some input on how this type of bill has affected their State. I want pros and cons if you can give some. Education? Public services? Public Safety? Roads? Snow Removal? etc... you get the picture.

The pro depends on what you want the government to be. TABOR's intent is to starve the beast, forcing government to continously shrink by choking off tax revenue. If you think all taxes (and government services)are a terrible evil, then TABOR is great.

 

[bydand]

3 opiniions so far, and they all mirror what I was suspecting. TABOR while sounding like a good thing in principal, doesn't cut it in application. Thanks for the responses! While I would love to knock down the bloated Maine government to a resonable level, this seems to not foster that outcome, but instead cut services while the state government stayes ineffective and wasteful.

 

[Marginal]

Colorado's situation is also complicated by other spending mandates. When a certain amount of the budget has to be set aside for K-12 education regardless of the ratchet effect, things get messy. Might not have reached crisis levels so soon had the Republicans not adamantly refused to do anything on Tabor until they got rid of the education spending amendment.