Groups uniting against TABOR
Cindy Allen, Managing Editor
Enid News
May 2, 2006
A group of 55 diverse Oklahoma organizations is on a campaign to educate Oklaho-mans about the effects
passage of a so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) could have on state services.
Robb Gray, with the Alliance for Oklahoma’s Future, told Enid Rotarians Monday they need look no farther
than Colorado to find out what could happen if a similar measure, State Question 726, makes it to the Oklahoma
ballot this fall.
Gray said groups are uniting against SQ 726, which is being challenged in the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
TABOR proponents have submitted an initiative petition with nearly 300,000 signatures. A decision on whether
the petition will be ratified is expected in July.
Members of the group opposing TABOR include chambers of commerce, teachers’ associations and health
organizations, among others.
“All of these groups generally don’t talk to teach other,” Gray said. However, all oppose the TABOR initiative.
Gray said Colorado last fall voted to suspend TABOR for five years after that state felt deep reductions in basic
services, including public schools, colleges, roads and health care.
Colorado passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights in 1992. Gray said TABOR contributed to a decline in public
services in that state, especially in education and health services.
Some of the statistics he cited were:
- Between 1992 and 2003 Colorado rose from 15 percent of low-income children lacking health insurance to 25
percent.
- Colorado’s ranking in access to adequate prenatal care dropped from 23rd nationwide in 1992 to 48th in 2002.
- In 2000-01, Colorado ranked 49th in current expenditures per $1,000 of personal income for public K-12
schools. K-12 education spending per pupil in Colorado fell by more than $300 compared to the national
average from 1992 to 2000.
“Colorado has provided a startling example to us,” Gray said.
Gray said Oklahoma doesn’t really need TABOR because tax and spending limits already are provided for in
the Oklahoma Constitution. He pointed to the Rainy Day Fund, the balanced budget amendment and the super
majority requirement to raise taxes as ways the Oklahoma Constitution already limits tax growth.
Colorado did not have these provisions in its constitution when voters passed TABOR in 1992.
He said there is a perception Oklahoma is over-taxed, but he said “taxation in Oklahoma is about where it
should be.” He said Oklahomans pay among the lowest tax burden when it comes to local taxes, and they pay
about half in state taxes what residents of other states pay.
“There is a role for taxes,” he said.
Part of the problem with TABOR, Gray said, is a “flawed” formula. The formula requires government spending
be equal to the inflation rate plus population growth. However, inflation is based on the Consumer Price Index,
which reflects typical purchases from consumers. Government’s purchases are different than a consumers.
Government spends enormous amounts on public safety, health care and education, while consumers only
spend minimal amounts on those items.
He said population growth in Oklahoma is about 1.2 percent per year, while the growth of people needing
services from the government is much higher.
Gray admitted the lure of TABOR is hard to overcome. He said those collecting signatures on the initiative
petition were asking people to sign the petition in order to limit state government.
“Well, who can be against that?” he asked. “Our challenge is to educate individuals and groups” about what a
TABOR in Oklahoma could mean.
TABOR does, however, have its supporters among the business sector. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob
Sullivan, who also was in Enid Monday, said he is in favor of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and signed the
petition. Sullivan is running on the platform he is a businessman and not a politician beholden to special
interests.
He pointed to the double-digit increases in state spending the past two years as one reason to curtail government
growth. He said while the balanced budget amendment keeps the state from spending more than it has, he wants
to change the mindset government needs to increase spending when revenues are good.
Gray acknowledged that perhaps the Legislature needs to look at other ways of holding government accountable
that don’t go as far as TABOR, which he said is over-restrictive.
He said what is needed is a “surgical approach” to looking at tax limitations, such as reducing income tax or
providing more restrictions for use of the Rainy Day Fund.
“TABOR is not using a scalpel, it’s using a hatchet,” he said.
His group will host a public forum on TABOR in Enid, including inviting proponents of the TABOR measure.
The forum is set for 6 p.m. May 11 at Autry Technology Center.
