July 17, 2002

Media Praise for Colorado's TABOR Plan

Here are some comments from various Colorado newspapers regarding the Taxpayer Bill of Rights...

Commenting on a similar proposed tax limitation amendment on the ballot in Washington state, the Rocky Mountain News said this on Nov. 7, 1999:

"Maybe it's time that opponents looked on the bright side. If they will give their new tax initiative a chance, they might find it actually strengthens the political process, rather than destroys it. That's clearly what has happened in Colorado since the passage of Tabor. Here, shifting responsibility for taxes from politicians to the public hasn't resulted in automatic rejection of every spending plan.

"But while Tabor hasn't straitjacketed government, it has accomplished a number of good things. It has heightened interest in elections and government policy; it has given public officials mandates they otherwise would have lacked; it has shrunk voters' sense of helplessness over the use of their hard-earned taxes; and last, but hardly least, it has strengthened the fiscal responsibility of state and local government."

"TABOR passed, of course, and the world did not end. In fact, the past eight years have probably been the most prosperous period in Colorado history." - Rocky Mountain News, Sept. 24, 2000.