We don't believe that any “government” other than that of Our Lord can truly rule the world with righteousness. Nevertheless, until He comes, we are stuck with what we poor humans can accomplish…and dismissing government's ability to govern because representative don't do their jobs, is simplistic, foolish and selfish…much like the elected representatives which TABOR amendments are meant to reign in!

Pray for Peace and Dare to Act!

We don't believe that any “government” other than that of Our Lord can truly rule the world with righteousness. Nevertheless, until He comes, we are stuck with what we poor humans can accomplish…and dismissing government's ability to govern because representative don't do their jobs, is simplistic, foolish and selfish…much like the elected representatives which TABOR amendments are meant to reign in!

Pray for Peace and Dare to Act!

LV

Knowing nothing about the Taxpayer Bill of Rights–I'm inclined to support it given this badly argued position.

I don't know Bob Greenstein. But he is founder and executive of an impressive sounding organization–so I presume he knows what he is talking about.

When citizens take to the streets and experts tell them to sit down and shut-up, without bothering to explain why they are in the streets marching, I go with the citizens.

The citizens aren't required to be sane. Experts are.

When the citizens appear more reasoned than the expert–I go with the citizens.

i.e. Please write another article explaining what these measures are and what those behind them wish to accomplish; and then take issue with the outcomes or means or whatever you want. I will gladly consider.

It's also a bit disingenuous to suggest that Maine (I don't know much about Washington's law) will be locked into recession level spending. Spending and taxes can be raised at any time, it will just take an up or down vote from the people. All the politicians need to do is to convince the voters that the money they're asking for is necessary, it's pretty simple.

It could be helpful at the local level as well. The way it works now is that a few people demand more money for a program or service and they get it; nobody goes to all the meetings just to say that they don't want any changes. Requiring the referendum will be an exercise in democratic governance, an improvement over the interest group governance that we have now.

93% of Washington state’s NFIB members supported the endorsement of Initiative 1033 – State Director Patrick Connor wrote: “Small businesses are struggling just to keep their doors open. Higher taxes jeopardize their ability to stay in business, let alone add the jobs this state needs to pull itself out of recession. With a looming $117 million workers’ compensation tax hike and Gregoire’s announcement that she is open to additional tax increases, it’s not surprising that small businesses are demanding some restraint.”

The worst thing government can do right now is raise taxes because that’ll just make this tough recession last longer. A tax-hike-induced extended recession would hurt the private sector and the public sector.

The most important thing that Initiative 1033 does, especially over the next two years, is it protects taxpayers and our struggling economy by making sure that state, county, and city politicians cannot take more of our money – raise taxes, increase fees, or artificially inflate property valuations – unless voters approve. With I-1033, instead of constantly trying to maximize revenue – taking more of our money – politicians will have to spend their time maximizing the effectiveness of existing revenue. And “more revenue” will only be a last resort and only with voter approval.

Moral: it's not enough to prune the overgrown state once, it needs to be done every 10-15 years at least.

LV

If one wants to cherry-pick health statistics one can make about any state in the union look like a hellhole. And “business leaders” is a large enough category that one can find a “business leader” to advocate just about anything. As for K-12 spending, it's been known for years that educational quality is only loosely related to raw spending; this factoid is almost meaningless without reference to standardized test scores. In short, the author fails to prove that limiting the size of government has done any real damage to Coloradans.

TABOR amendments force governments to set priorities, economize, and keep tax burdens on families and businesses reasonable. One can argue that the limits they set are arbitrary and severe, but until we get past the naive sort of “There's No Such Thing As A Bad Government Program” taxpayers cannot be blamed for wanting to resort to TABOR amendments.

LV