TABORed

Colorado's TABOR law puts limits on the amount that state spending can increase from year to year. This means that, even if there is a record tax windfall to the state coffers, only a small amount can be applied to spending increase while I believe the rest must be returned to the taxpayers.

It's a fine idea, in theory. But theory doesn't help pay for the reduction in immunizations, substandard roads, and insurance for poor children, either. So what's the solution?

This Tuesday, November 1st, Colorado voters will be asked to vote out the "ratchet clause," which is responsible for the steady decline in state services. Opponents solution? Privatiziation, of course!

[John Andrews, a former Republican state senator] argues that universities should be funded privately and that tolls or fees should pay for roads and parks. He says that medical care should be left to "self-reliance" rather than "Big Brother."

So rather than pay your hard earned money to taxes to repair and rebuild roads, you should pay your hard earned money in taxes and fees to a private company who can then make a profit while they fix and replace roads, thereby charging you more than it should. Seems to make no sense to me.

Makes no sense to her, either:

"Do we want people carrying asphalt around to fill the potholes they see on the road?" asks Joan Fitz-Gerald, the Democratic president of the state Senate. "Should we tell them to set aside a spare room for some drug dealer, because we can't afford prisons? Do we want some guy in his basement teaching our medical students?"

Can I get a heh, indeedy?