Distorting Romanoff TABOR proposal with KFKA's Oliver, Jones falsely claimed Amendment 23 is "set to expire in 2010 anyway"

Summary: On The Amy Oliver Show, conservative activist Brad Jones of the "news" website Face the State falsely asserted that a legislative proposal to reform the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and Amendment 23 to Colorado's constitution is "just a slightly accelerated repeal of Amendment 23," because it "was set to expire in 2010 anyway." In fact, a provision setting the base statewide funding level for public schools will expire that year, but the amendment requires continued annual funding increases linked to inflation.

As a guest April 28 on 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show, conservative activist and Face the State managing editor Brad Jones argued that House Speaker Andrew Romanoff's (D-Denver) proposal to reform the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) and Amendment 23 to the Colorado Constitution "is a little bit disingenuous as far as I'm concerned, because Amendment 23 was set to expire in 2010 anyway." Jones added that the proposal, which Romanoff introduced on April 23 as House Concurrent Resolution 1014, "is just a slightly accelerated repeal of Amendment 23." In fact, while the Amendment 23 requirement that the base statewide funding level for public schools increase annually by at least inflation plus 1 percent does expire in 2010, the constitutional amendment itself does not. It contains a provision that after 2010 continues to increase such funding annually by at least the rate of inflation, which Romanoff's proposal would eliminate.

Oliver, who is director of operations for the "free-market" Independence Institute, also uncritically allowed Jones to state that as a result of Romanoff's proposal, "we [would] lose all of the great taxpayer protections in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights." In fact, while the proposal would eliminate TABOR limits on how much governments can spend, it would retain the requirement that Colorado voters approve any state tax increases.

From the April 28 broadcast of 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show:

OLIVER: I'm gonna turn it over to Brad Jones from Face the State, because I want to get his take on what's happening with TABOR. There is a movement afoot to dismantle it. What a shock. Go ahead, Brad; what's your take on what's happening down there with TABOR, Amendment 23, and everything else?

JONES: Yeah, and I covered this for a segment when I was filling in for you last Thursday, and I'll put that audio on FacetheState.com too so folks can listen to it a little bit more than would have a chance to get to here. But basically the House Speaker Andrew Romanoff -- a Democrat out of Denver -- is proposing to basically make sweeping changes to the Colorado Constitution under the guise of providing more money for education. That's how he's getting around the regulations requiring a, quote, "single subject" for changes to the constitution. He would do two main things: One, basically get rid of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. He says he's willing to maintain taxpayer approval of tax rate increases, which is different than the current approval required under TABOR, but get rid of everything else in TABOR. And then he would also get rid of a spending requirement in the constitution, Amendment 23, which requires huge increases in K-12 spending yearly. But this is a little bit disingenuous as far as I'm concerned, because Amendment 23 was set to expire in 2010 anyway. So really what we have here is just a slightly accelerated repeal of Amendment 23, but we lose all of the great taxpayer protections in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, which not only affects state government but local governments as well. So it's really a bait-and-switch.

OLIVER: Yeah, and it'll be interesting to watch how this plays out, because again, Romanoff is term-limited, so how much -- is the left gonna want even more than what Romanoff is proposing?

Contrary to Jones' misrepresentation, the fiscal note for the proposal prepared by the nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff outlines the relevant features of Amendment 23 and the changes the proposal would make to those features, noting that the proposal "removes the inflationary funding requirements beginning in FY 2009-10":

Article IX, Section 17 (Amendment 23). Amendment 23 contains the following provisions related to this resolution:

• it requires the statewide base per pupil funding and categorical funding to increase by inflation plus 1 percent until FY 2010-11 and by no less than the rate of inflation annually thereafter;
• it requires that General Fund appropriations to school finance grow by at least 5 percent annually until FY 2010-11;
• it established the State Education Fund to receive state revenue collected from a tax of 0.33 percent on federal taxable income;
• it stipulates that State Education Fund moneys only be spent on the following: funding of public education, categorical funding, accountable education reform, school safety improvement, expansion of preschool and kindergarten programs, and public school building capital construction; and
• it requires that State Education Fund moneys not be used to supplant General Fund appropriations.

This resolution makes the following changes to Amendment 23:

• it removes the inflationary funding requirements beginning in FY 2009-10;
• it ends the requirement that General Fund appropriations to school finance grow by at least 5 percent annually; and
• it allows State Education Fund moneys to supplant General Fund appropriations. [emphases added]

Jones also distorted Romanoff's proposal by stating that under it "we lose all of the great taxpayer protections in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights." As the Associated Press reported April 17, while future "[t]ax surplus refunds under the Taxpayers (sic) Bill of Rights would permanently disappear and instead go to fund education" under the proposal, voters "would retain the right to vote on any tax increases, another part of TABOR":

Tax surplus refunds under the Taxpayers Bill of Rights would permanently disappear and instead go to fund education under a proposal by Democrat House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.

Romanoff said the measure would get rid of automatic spending increases for education, as required by Amendment 23, and take the state budget off of "autopilot."

[...]

Romanoff said the measure would end the conflict between TABOR, which limits how tax money is collected and spent, and Amendment 23, which requires the state to increase spending on education at the rate of inflation plus 1 percent until 2010, and then at the rate of inflation afterward.

Under the proposal, voters would give up future tax surplus refunds and that money would go into a separate "rainy day" account in the education fund created by Amendment 23.

Voters would retain the right to vote on any tax increases, another part of TABOR. [emphases added]

As Colorado Media Matters noted, on April 18 Face the State distorted the AP article by linking to it with the misleading headline "Surplus would go to teachers unions, not citizens."

—E.B. & J.F.B.