Women Standing Together is a non-partisan group of Maine women business owners who support the work of the non-profit Maine Women’s Fund (www.mainewomensfund.org). We met recently to learn more about the so-called Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the right-wing TABOR bill I’ve warned you about before.
We heard from Kristi Hargrove, a mom, small business owner, and PTA leader from Colorado. She described how similar legislation impacted her community. She came to warn us about the potential harmful effects on our public safety, schools, and communities.
Kristi is a Republican from Crested Butte, a rural and affluent community in Western Colorado. The members of that small community are actively involved in the area’s affairs and have successfully established their own school system, to avoid the 30-mile drive over treacherous roads to the nearest city’s schools. A self-described busy “soccer mom,” Kristi was shaken when her children said they were wearing not only their parkas, but also their mittens in class because heat in the schools was inadequate.
She discovered that in the five or so years since the approval of TABOR spending caps, their school system had been getting by dipping into their reserves. But by the time Kristi woke up, the reserves were gone and they couldn’t pay to heat the buildings!
She quickly got involved in the PTA’s efforts to help the school district maintain the high quality of education they enjoyed. She told us about huge fund-raising drives the PTA undertook. Guess who was then paying to keep the schools operating? You’re right! The parents and business owners kicked in to buy the books, pay for the heat and to donate reams of paper. The families had to separately fund normal extracurricular activities and athletic programs.
Kristi participated in the passage of a local mil levy override to help offset the state budget reductions. This increased the local property taxes to help get more funds into the local budgets, not only for the schools. The mandatory procedures required by TABOR made it difficult, since the taxes had to be increased more than the amount allowable by the TABOR formula of “inflation plus population growth.” The formula wasn’t working and the area couldn’t keep up with the costs without an override.
The other thing they did in Colorado, Kristi told us, was to increase fees and penalties every place they could. That meant fees for regulatory permits, fees for trash collection, and dog tag fees. It was the only way they could keep going and avoid school district consolidation again. Of course, fees and penalties fall more heavily on low and middle-income people than income and business taxes.
Did you read my most recent article about how Maine’s harmful TABOR proposal restricts the increase of fees at the local level? I explained how it would work. If this happened in Maine, we would have to get town-wide voter approval after a two-thirds super-majority of the council approved each and every fee increase. The cost of these special elections would greatly offset the amount of the fee increases!
Needless to say, Kristi then participated in local and statewide civic education efforts regarding TABOR and helped fight for its recent suspension. Because Colorado’s TABOR was enacted as an amendment to their State Constitution, the provisions couldn’t be rescinded. After the five-year suspension, the bake sales will have to resume!
Kristi says, “Stay aware. Don’t be fooled by the TABOR sound bites. Don’t make the same TABOR mistake.”
Lu says, “Be aware of the TABOR position of candidates running for election.” The Republican nominee for governor, Chandler Woodcock, is already touting this radical and insidious proposal.
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