It is well known by now that Colorado’s budget is on an unsustainable path. 

While there’s considerable disagreement about what is driving the issue and what the solution might be,  one thing is for sure: trying to lay blame on the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) is just pure deflection. 

As I have written previously, this year’s billion-dollar budget shortfall was caused by overspending. 

The state took advantage of one-time COVID-19 funds and inflation to fund unsustainable government programs.  

Now, the federal funds are drying up, inflation is cooling, and the legislature has foolishly reduced its revenue by handing out billions in special interest tax breaks.

Dodging accountability  

Unfortunately, some legislators see no fault in their overspending and instead continue to point the finger at the taxpayer protections in TABOR. 

For example, Senator Jeff Bridges, chairman of the Joint Budget Committee (JBC), consistently blames TABOR for the budget crisis in JBC hearings. 

Recently, Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie suggested new TABOR reform along the lines of Referendum C, which paused the TABOR spending cap for five years, resulting in billions worth of new spending.

The increasing anti-taxpayer rhetoric may lead some to believe that TABOR unfairly restricts government spending because mandatory costs such as Medicaid are growing faster than the current spending cap allows. 

And because the economy is growing, they automatically presume entitlement to more of the taxpayers’ money.

In reality, TABOR only limits a portion of the state budget to a modest population growth plus inflation formula, meaning government spending keeps on growing, just not as fast as the free spenders would prefer. 

 Furthermore, these claims obfuscate some interesting reasons for rising government-subsidized health care costs, including Medicaid.

A Denver Post article by Meg Wingerter reported that Colorado paid more than $7 million to insurance companies on behalf of nearly 9,000 dead Coloradans from 2018 to 2020. 

Next, a recent Legislative Council Staff Memorandum found that in 2023, UCHealth and Denver Health provided over $27 million in uncompensated care for 48,000 visits by newly arrived undocumented migrants. 

Additionally, a report by the Common Sense Institute estimates that Denver metro emergency departments likely provided $49 million in uncompensated care to migrants from December 2022 to November 2024.  

This all points to a spending problem, rather than a revenue one. 

Nothing to see here

Despite such alarming developments, legislators at the capitol voted along party lines to kill a bill proposed by Senator John Carson that would have created a bipartisan Colorado Government Efficiency Authority.  

Colorado’s authority would have focused on bipartisanship, unlike the federal government’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is blunter and more unilateral, putting Democrats nationally on the offensive against it. 

Appointees would have been business leaders appointed by the governor and the majority and minority leaders of both chambers who would serve alongside other non-voting, advisory members from the government.  

The authority, with bipartisan leadership and hearings from private citizens, was intended to increase transparency and accountability in the state government and amplify more Coloradan voices. 

Voters in Colorado and around the country are becoming increasingly apprehensive when seemingly told that costs rise inexorably and not to ask why. 

According to a recent Harris poll, 72% of American voters support the existence of a US government agency focused on efficiency initiatives. 

Avoiding the fiscal cliff

This rejection of evidence-based accountability sends the message to Colorado voters that the legislative majority in Colorado is basically unconcerned with the overspending side of the ledger, yet remain adamant that they will solve all fiscal problems once TABOR restraints are removed. 

TABOR is the Colorado taxpayer’s principal protection from having to foot the bill for government excess and keeps politicians from driving us off a cliff of fiscal irresponsibility.  

Colorado voters know this, so they consistently vote to keep TABOR in place.  

Moreover, it is reasonable to assume that Colorado voters would like to add additional guardrails to government overreach through “efficiency authorities” such as the one so swiftly and unceremoniously rejected. 

The solution to this budget crisis is for legislators to stop over-promising and over-spending, and to start engaging these issues in good faith.