Two potential ballot measures seek to allow state to keep excess revenue
DENVER • If Coloradans were hoping for a quiet campaign season after last fall’s record number of ballot measures, they may be in for a disappointment. A potential ballot measure is in the works that could be labeled “Son of Referendum C.”
House Majority Leader Paul Weissman, D-Louisville, is promising to introduce a referendum in late February that could extend Referendum C indefinitely. Referendum C, passed by voters in 2005, allowed the state to keep more than $5 billion in taxes that otherwise would have been refunded to residents.
A second bill, which would likely begin in the Senate, may try to repeal Colorado’s limit on the budget growing more than 6 percent each year.
Weissman said Monday that his bill would allow the state to keep excess tax revenue to backfill holes in the state budget created by cuts made during recessions. The Legislature is looking at cutting roughly $1.3 billion from the 2008-2009 budget and 2009-2010 budget.
The problem, said Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, is the 6 percent limit prevents the state from simply re-inflating the budget after making deep cuts. He predicted, given the amount that will probably be slashed from the budget this year and next, that it will take years for Colorado to recover because the cuts add up to much more than 6 percent.
That causes state services ranging from health care to education to transportation to suffer more in the long run, Heath said.
“My intention is to ask the voters for the ability for the state to recover from the recession, just like everybody else is going to recover. We’re trying to refill the holes we’re making in government,” Weissman said.
As a change in state law rather than the constitution, the measure would require only a majority vote of the Legislature to be placed on the November ballot.
That might be the easy part, Weissman acknowledged, compared to selling voters on it.
Heath and Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, said Monday there could also be a bill introduced in the Senate that would change or repeal the 6 percent limit, formally known as the Arveschoug-Bird amendment, without putting it to a vote of the people.
“I’ve got every reason to believe that there will be a bill introduced on the floor…to deal with Arveschoug,” Heath said.
Even Heath, however, isn’t sure the bill would be legal because the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights requires a popular vote to approve spending limit increases. The question may be up to the courts - the 6 percent limit was originally adopted by the Legislature in 1991, before TABOR was passed in 1992…. (READ MORE)