The Magendanz Family Blog

According to the Voters’ Pamphlet, Initiative 1033 is a measure that would “limit growth of certain state, county and city revenue to annual inflation and population growth, not including voter approved revenue increases.  Revenue collected above the limit would reduce property tax levies.”  For fiscal conservatives like me who believe in limited constitutional government and have been regularly frustrated with the inability of lawmakers to live within their means, the intent of this measure seems quite laudable.

 

 

Consider that during Governor Gregoire’s first term state spending increased 33%.  That’s an increase of over 8% per year even though inflation and population growth averaged about 3%.  The result: the inflation-corrected tax burden on the average citizen increased about 5% per year without their consent.  It’s not surprising that voters now don’t trust Olympia to show spending restraint of their own volition.  During periods of rapid revenue growth lawmakers will spend the extra revenue because it garners support from beneficiaries, and during periods of revenue decline they look to tax increases to cover shortfalls.  So left to its own devices, government seems to grow until the taxpayers force restraint.

 

 

Well, in 1992 Colorado became the only state in the nation to impose a revenue limit like the one in I-1033.  During the years that followed Colorado’s per-pupil funding for K-12 education plummeted to 49th in the nation, even despite provisions to earmark surplus revenues for educational improvements and an adequate rainy-day fund before reducing property tax levies.  In 2000, an amendment was passed requiring education spending to increase at a certain rate regardless of revenue, and lead to a greater portion of revenue devoted to education.  However, the revenue growth limit required that other cuts in spending be made to offset education increases, and many of these cuts were unpopular.  By 2005 the budgeting process got so paralyzed and convoluted that Colorado voters—led by a bipartisan coalition of business leaders, teachers, seniors, healthcare providers and firefighters—voted to suspend the law for five years to stop the deterioration of their state.

 

My conclusion is that despite it's good intentions, the flawed implementation of I-1033 will cause substantial harm to our state.  I don’t believe education reform needs to come hand-in-hand with larger government and higher taxes, but the political reality is that passage of this measure would be a significant barrier to enactment of the basic education reform initiatives that we so boldly began last legislative session.  As much as I’d love a property tax rebate, preparing future generations to better compete in our global 21st century workplace is much more critical to our long-term success as a state and a nation.