Colorado voters give up billions in tax refunds

updated 2:14 p.m. ET Nov. 2, 2005

DENVER - Colorado voters have agreed to suspend the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, the nation's strictest government spending limit, and give up more than $3 billion in taxpayer refunds to help the state bounce back from a recession.

The vote essentially suspends a key part of TABOR, a model conservatives hold up for other states to emulate.

"It certainly makes our hill harder to climb," said Cameron Sholty, a spokesman for FreedomWorks, which campaigned against loosening TABOR's fiscal reins.

Californians are scheduled to vote on state spending limits Nov. 8, and Kansas, Ohio, Maine, Nevada, Oklahoma and Arizona are considering spending caps.

Douglas Bruce, the anti-tax crusader who wrote TABOR more than a decade ago, said Colorado voters have make it harder for other states to approve similar measures.

"The establishment is going to say we had 13 years of experience with spending limits and we changed our minds," he said. "I'm sorry for their sake and I'm sorry for our sake."

Added Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman, who lobbied heavily against the budget fix: "It sends a terrible message to the rest of the nation."

A record turnout for a hot-button issue
Referendum C will let the state keep an estimated $3.7 billion that would otherwise be refunded under TABOR. With 99 percent of the expected vote counted statewide, 578,408 voters, or 52 percent, had approved the plan, compared with 533,105, or 48 percent, who voted against it.

A second ballot measure that would have allowed the state to borrow up to $2.1 billion for roads, school maintenance, pensions and other projects was rejected: 560,897 people, or 51 percent, voted no on Referendum D compared with 547,490, or 49 percent, who backed it.

Unofficial, preliminary figures indicated statewide turnout may have hit 47.7 percent. The record for an odd-year election was 47.2 percent in 2003, when voters overwhelmingly defeated a $2 billion proposal for water projects.

"We might have lost but we lost in a split decision. I'll take that half-loaf than no loaf at all," said Jon Caldara, leader of the opposition group "Vote No; It's Your Dough."

Caldara said he will consider a court challenge to Referendum C, arguing that one of its provisions illegally changes the constitution with a law instead of a constitutional amendment.

That provision overrides TABOR by allowing lawmakers a one-time chance to use the best of the next five years to calculate future budget increases. TABOR normally requires each year's budget to be based only on the one before.

Bruce said it was too soon to consider legal action.

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