Call you spell D.i.s.a.s.t.e.r.? You can if you vote for this.
LANSING -- Enough petition signatures have been collected for a November vote on a constitutional amendment that would clamp on the tightest budget limits ever faced by state and local governments, according to the treasurer of the group circulating the petitions.
The Michigan Stop Overspending Committee expects to turn in considerably more than the needed 317,757 petition signatures, according to its attorney, Kurt O'Keefe.
It is similar to a 1992 Colorado law that residents there voted last year to suspend amid budget troubles. It prevents governments from increasing their tax revenue by a proportion greater than a combination of the inflation rate and the percentage of population growth.
Governments immediately would have to refund to taxpayers any revenue exceeding the limits, or hold elections in which they could ask taxpayers for permission to keep the money.
Colorado's law, known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), applied only to state government. The Michigan proposal also would restrict the incomes of cities, counties and townships -- described as "TABOR on steroids" by the spokesman for a coalition formed to oppose it.
"It would devastate state and local governments to a degree this state has never seen," said Roger Martin, representing the Defend Michigan Coalition.
Let's look at Colorado and what happened there after TABOR, and why they decided to get rid of it. According to the Michigan League of Human Services-
Under TABOR, Colorado declined from 35th to 49th in the nation in K-12 spending as a percentage of income.
Per pupil funding fell from approximately $300 above the national average in 1991, just prior to TABOR’s adoption, to approximately $700 below the national average by 2000.
The impact of TABOR on public education funding was so significant that in 2000 voters approved Amendment 23, a measure that permits K-12 education funding to increase by inflation plus 1 percent beginning in 2001. While this change in the stringent limits of TABOR benefited the K-12 budget, it focused the impact of ongoing revenue shortfalls on the budgets of the other departments of state government.
Under TABOR, inflation adjusted funding for in-state college students declined by 31 percent.
College and university funding as a share of personal income declined from 35th to 48th in the nation.
In the four years from 2002 through 2005 inflation adjusted system-wide tuition increased by 21 percent to offset losses in public funding. A recent report indicated that tuition increases in Colorado were the highest in the nation in 2006 at 17 percent.
That takes care of education- now for a look at health care.
Under TABOR, the share of low-income children lacking health insurance doubled in Colorado, even as it fell in the nation as a whole. Colorado now ranks last among the 50 states on this measure.
Colorado plummeted from 24th to 50th in the nation in the share of children receiving their full vaccination regiment. Only by investing additional funds taken from federal Homeland Security allocations was Colorado able to improve its state ranking to 43rd by 2004.
Under TABOR, Colorado declined from 23rd to 48th in the nation in the percentage of pregnant women receiving adequate access to prenatal care as defined by standards established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Colorado ranks 49th in per capita spending on substance abuse and treatment programs despite substance abuse rates significantly above the national average.
But wait- if you act now, you can destroy the arts and the environment, too!
Since 2002 state funding for public libraries has been cut by 79 percent.
Between 2002 and 2004 the Colorado Council on the Art’s General Fund appropriation fell from $1.9 million to $100,000.
Between 2001 and 2005, the percentage of state park operating costs covered by authorizations from the state’s General Fund has declined by 37 percent.
In 2003 the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Colorado a D+ for the condition of the state’s roads and bridges and the Governor’s Task Force indicated that a minimum investment of an additional $206 million per year would be required just to maintain the state’s current transportation infrastructure.
Over the last two years Colorado State University’s Agricultural Extension Agency had its state authorizations reduced by $1.6 million while funding for the Office of Economic Development was reduced by 57 percent.
Are we clear on this? ( as mud, sir! )
Now imagine the SBT revenue eliminated also.
And the K-12 funding proposal passing, which seems to directly contradict the SOS amendment. I don't know how they would work around that.
And, of course, there is slash and burn DeVos, threatening to overhaul state government to his liking.
We have the potential to totally destroy this state's financial well-being this November. That's some major scary stuff- hope there is enough ammo in the Colorado example to educate people as to what this amendment will do, and enough ammo out there to educate people as to what Dick would do.
I plan to keep firing everything I have.