Maine Owl

Cross posted at Dirigo Blue

TABOR, or the Tax Payer Bill of Rights, is an attempt to limit the tax and spending authority of the State government. Mainers will be asked to adopt TABOR in the upcoming election, 3 November. It is Question 4 on the ballot.

TABOR would limit any increase in spending or taxation (not requiring a special plebiscite) to an "inflation adjustment factor" combined with a "population adjustment index." The "inflation adjustment factor" is defined as:

3. Inflation adjustment factor. "Inflation adjustment factor" means the increase in the Consumer Price Index for the most recently available calendar year as calculated by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. The inflation adjustment factor may not be less than zero.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) uses a variety of goods and services to determine the increase (or decrease) in the cost of living for an average American household. It covers eight basic areas:

* FOOD AND BEVERAGES (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, full service meals, snacks)
* HOUSING (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, fuel oil, bedroom furniture)
* APPAREL (men's shirts and sweaters, women's dresses, jewelry)
* TRANSPORTATION (new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline, motor vehicle insurance)
* MEDICAL CARE (prescription drugs and medical supplies, physicians' services, eyeglasses and eye care, hospital services)
* RECREATION (televisions, toys, pets and pet products, sports equipment, admissions);
* EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (college tuition, postage, telephone services, computer software and accessories);
* OTHER GOODS AND SERVICES (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses).

Glancing over the list, it's easy to see the categories which do not apply, or do so only in a very small way, to our State government. In fact, the much of the State's budget is composed of items that the average household does not pay for: teachers' salaries and contributions to local public schools, road construction and maintenance, State troopers, environmental monitoring, social services, etc.

Much of the State budget is composed of very expensive goods and services, and this makes sense - we as a people, unable to afford to provide these individually, have combined a small portion of our collective money (through taxes) to provide for these goods and services.

A Government Price Index , compared to the CPI, would look considerably different, since the normal costs to government are considerably higher than the normal costs to the average household.

And this is the problem with TABOR, one which the citizens of Colorado discovered several years into it. When first enacted as part of that state's constitution, people were moving to Colorado in droves, and so the allowable increases were able to keep pace.

TABOR does not allow for a decrease, based upon deflation or a net loss in population.

And it could be worse - should the CPI or population decrease, so spending would have to be reduced.

TABOR is conceived to, in the words of Grover Norquist, "...to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Many of those that support it do not share this ideology, but just want their taxes reduced, not having realized the breadth of government services the take for granted.

It is an idea that has had a chance to prove its efficacy, and it has failed. TABOR needs to killed and buried, before it does the same to our state.