During the 33 years since TABOR was enacted, the federal government has paid for a lot of things that Colorado needs: Medicare, Medicaid, wildland firefighting, the National Weather Service, disaster assistance through FEMA, financial aid and grants for research and education, and federal transportation funding for highway projects.
That help is going away. Medicaid cuts will devastate rural hospitals. (Thanks for nothing, Rep. Hurd.) DOGE fired people working for the BLM, U.S. Forest Service and NWS. Executive orders have pulled back grants awarded to businesses, universities, and K-12 schools. And the next budget will cut even more. (Except ICE, which now will have a budget larger than Russia’s entire military.)
The federal government is leaving our health, our disaster preparation and recovery, and our education to the states. But Colorado is handcuffed by TABOR, a constitutional amendment from 1992 that prevents us from spending any more money than we currently do. We already are unable to adequately fund our K-12 schools and universities. Now, we’ll have to make even harder choices between paying teachers, fixing roads, keeping hospitals open, dealing with the aftermath of floods and fires, and so forth.
It could be different. Colorado constantly has to send money back to taxpayers. We could get rid of TABOR, and keep our health care and our education and our roads.
After all, taxpayers are supposedly getting a big tax cut from the federal government. Right?
Kim Hannula
Durango
