News that Douglas Bruce will be going to jail is bound to evoke a certain schadenfreude across Colorado. That a nugget of wisdom was at the core of his signature accomplishment does nothing to diminish the hope that this marks the end of his influence in Colorado.

Bruce is the author of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the so-called TABOR amendment passed 20 years ago this year. It is a complex and troublesome measure that has done real damage to the state of Colorado.

In December, a jury found Bruce guilty of three felonies and one misdemeanor count of tax evasion. Friday, he will begin serving a six-month jail sentence. After that, he will face six years probation, during which his finances and personal computers must be open to government inspection. (For him, that may be worse than jail.) The Internal Revenue Service is also looking into prosecuting him on federal charges.

Although usually described as an anti-tax activist, in this latest go-round with the authorities Bruce revealed his messianic streak. After being sentenced, Bruce melodramatically described himself as a political prisoner saying, “They will be able to have my body, but they cannot have my soul.”

It is doubtful anyone wants either. His egocentric obstructionism and abusive personal behavior have long since worn thin.

Movements to control the growth of government spending have a long history. In 1986, the Colorado electorate turned down a ballot measure that would have required voter approval for any tax increase. A story at the time (Herald, Nov. 5, 1986) credits the idea to a 38-year-old Palisade fruit farmer named John J. Cox Jr. Voting-on-taxes measures had been on the Colorado ballot in 1972 and 1976.

Bruce moved to Colorado in the mid-’80s and worked on similar initiatives in 1980 and 1990. And with every try, the measures became more restrictive. In 1992, he led the successful effort to pass a voter-approval requirement for tax increases as TABOR.

That was fine, or would have been had it stopped there. The idea that voters must approve tax increases was and is popular. It empowers voters, and officials seeking more revenue know they have to sell the public. They build their cases, or drop them, accordingly.

Moreover, that requirement has not crippled good government. In the years since TABOR was enacted, local voters have approved funds for the Durango Community Recreation Center, the Animas River Trail, the new Durango Public Library and rebuilding Florida Road. They have twice voted to give money to Durango School District 9-R and just last year agreed to more funding for Ignacio schools.

Bruce, however, demonstrated his antipathy for all government and his indifference to Colorado’s welfare in TABOR’s other effects. Beyond the idea that voters must approve tax increases – the measure’s selling point and best feature – TABOR included a “ratchet down” mechanism that prevented state budgets from recovering as revenues rose again after an economic downturn. It also specifically bans a real estate transfer tax, which could have moderated the real estate bubble and its bursting. And its incredible complexity makes undoing its worst sections difficult.

He also engineered three ballot measures in 2010, which, strong bipartisan opposition agreed, would have killed jobs and hurt emergency services and schools.

Bruce may have won voters over with TABOR’s requirement that voters approve tax hikes, but his mindless hatred of all things government has hurt Colorado. His political passing will not be mourned.