The Failure of TABOR Allows New Opportunity for Legislature

by State Senator Jon Erpenbach

On May 4th the Wisconsin Legislature finally put to rest the idea of amending our 160-year-old constitution to include a proposal which seeks to limit state and local spending by linking increases to some combination of the Consumer Price Index, population growth, personal income growth and new construction.

Our state is still one of the very few in the country to still be using its original constitution. That makes it the oldest state constitution outside of New England. From the start, Wisconsin exhibited a progressive stance that paved the way for other states. The constitution written in 1846 included two major provisions not even found in the U.S. constitution at the time: a ban on slavery and a guarantee that foreigners would have the same rights with respect to property as U.S. citizens. I tell you all of this to demonstrate the seriousness of changing our constitution to reflect the partisan politics of the day.
Although the name of the legislation has changed, the substance of proposal remains the same. Knowing that, we need only examine Colorado’s experience with TABOR, (that state’s worst economic slump in 15 years, including the loss of nearly 80,000 jobs, a rate of job loss more than three times the national rate; a doubling of Colorado’s overall unemployment rate; an educational and public health system which ranks 50th in the nation), to know that this kind of proposal has no place in Wisconsin. In fact, TABOR has been so damaging to Colorado’s economy that on November 1, 2005, Colorado voters voted to suspend the law altogether.

In general, TABOR is a one-size-fits-all prescription for devastation to our communities. Specifically, however, if TABOR were ever enacted, residents of Wisconsin could expect the elimination of, or severe reductions to, BadgerCare, SeniorCare, medical assistance, public schools, public services, and, among other things, police and fire protection. And that’s during good economic times. If ever the state is faced with a recession, governmental units may be required to use any available revenue growth for its reserves rather than putting it towards social and other public services where there is an increasing need, thereby forcing state and local governments to slash programs.

TABOR will not take an unfair tax system and make it fair. Every document that legislators were provided with from our state Fiscal Bureau showed us that our taxes will not be lowered upon passage of TABOR, in fact, our taxes will be increased, maybe not as much, but they would still be increased.

Now that the Wisconsin Legislature, Democrats and Republicans alike have agreed that TABOR is not the answer, we need to sit down together and figure out why taxes are the way they are in the state of Wisconsin. That’s what we’re elected to do.

Democrats and Republicans need to sit down and look at who we tax and who we don’t. We need to take a look at how we tax and how we spend, what we spend our money on and why. We need to take a look at all of the exemptions we have handed out without a corresponding spending cut. In fact, just last session, Republican leaders pushed through a bill that gave $45 million per year to corporations located in Wisconsin.

This is our opportunity to examine the fairness of our tax system, and why property owners are being forced to bear such a great burden. Many of you have heard me say that in 1960, homeowners were responsible for just 46% of state property tax collections, in 2002 that number had skyrocketed to 70%.

The failure of TABOR is not a lost opportunity for taxpayers. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Now that the Legislature understands that a constitutional amendment isn’t the answer, we can sit down together and figure out how to restore fairness to our tax system.