Goal: Rein in state spending increases (Legislature considering TABOR)

[atommom]

TOPEKA— Americans for Prosperity kicked off a campaign Monday to enact a proposed state constitutional amendment limiting Kansas spending increases to the annual rate of inflation.

Alan Cobb, the group's executive director, said the only way the group was going to get two-thirds of the Legislature to back the amendment, known as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, was to mobilize public support.

Leading that effort, Cobb said at a news conference, will be the leaders of chapters in five Kansas counties — Johnson, Douglas, Sedgwick, Saline and Shawnee.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/11136907.htm

For more information on TABOR (and how it has devastated Colorado), check this out.

Around the country, right-wing radicals are working feverishly to undermine public services in health, education, public safety and every other area. Their weapon of choice is something called the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (or TABOR), which severely and artificially limits revenue and spending for all services, no matter how great the need. (This document provides a concise description of exactly how TABOR works.) The Heritage Foundation orchestrated the passage of TABOR in Colorado in 1992. The impact on Colorado has been disastrous. Now, Heritage, Grover Norquist and their radical right-wing allies are pushing hard to pass laws that would bring the terror of TABOR to the entire country.

TABOR – THE SHELL GAME EXPOSED: Right-wing ideologues try to present TABOR as reasonably limiting government spending based on a combination of population growth and inflation. But here is the trick: "No existing measure of inflation correctly captures the growth in the cost of the kind of services purchased in the public sector." That means "the inflation adjustment generally is not sufficient to allow the continuation of existing services." Also, "subpopulations that state government serve tend to grow more rapidly that the overall population growth used in the formula." For example, "while the total population grew by 15.4% from 1990 to 2002 … the number of elderly and disabled persons on Medicaid grew by 70 percent." Make no mistake about it: The goal of TABOR is not to restrain the growth of government; it is to undermine every vital government service.

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=446253