Democrats’ latest attempt to uproot a state constitutional amendment that severely limits officials’ spending authority narrowly passed its first committee vote Monday night.
House Joint Resolution 1023 would commit the Colorado General Assembly to suing the state over whether the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, passes federal constitutional muster. Voters passed TABOR as an amendment to the state constitution in 1992. Among other provisions, it restricts lawmakers from raising taxes without seeking voter approval and limits how much the state budget can grow annually.
This resolution, if it passes the full legislature, would result in a legal challenge based on whether TABOR’s restrictions are allowed under the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that all states have a republican form of representative government. TABOR, the resolution argues, restricts the state to a direct democracy when it comes to matters of spending.
“The question before us is, should a court rule on the constitutionality of TABOR or not? I say yes,” Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat and sponsor of the measure, said before the vote. “I believe that this question has gone unanswered for far too long, and we owe (an answer) to those who love TABOR and to those who believe it harms society.”
Garcia is one of a team of Democrats looking to reform TABOR, a longtime goal of many in her caucus. The state’s $1.2 billion budget crunch this year put a heightened emphasis on it for many Democrats.
State budget writers expect the hole to deepen in coming years as spending on mandated programs, like Medicaid, outpaces growth caps set by TABOR.
TABOR itself has never been formally challenged in court. A prior lawsuit, initially filed more than a decade ago, never reached a conclusion over a dispute over whether the plaintiffs — former lawmakers, school districts and county commissioners — had standing to sue.
A slim majority of lawmakers on the House Finance Committee agreed with Garcia. After hours of testimony, the resolution passed 7-6.
Rep. Bob Marshall, a Highlands Ranch Democrat, joined Republicans in voting against it. Regardless of one’s thoughts on TABOR as a policy, he said, undoing the will of the voters via a lawsuit isn’t the right way to go.
The argument for it boiled down to, “This is so horrible that we need to go to court and throw out what the voters put in by lawful democratic means because we don’t like it,” Marshall said. “The disdain and contempt it has for our own voters is palatable.”
Republicans have stood firm in defense of TABOR and pledged to fight the proposal.
Rep. Larry Don Suckla, a Cortez Republican on the committee, called the amendment “the last defense for the taxpayers.” Democrats hold strong majorities in both chambers of the legislature, however.
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