MEASURE 48 TABOR RESOURCES

OCPP Reports & News Releases

Issue Brief, Revised August 4, 2006: Measure 48 Quacks Like a TABOR Duck: No matter what its proponents call it, Measure 48 is still a TABOR like the one Colorado voters suspended

Report, Revised August 4, 2006: It Ain't No "Rainy Day Amendment" The Measure 48 TABOR proposal would make recessions worse and undermine any rainy day fund that the Legislature might create

News Release, June 28, 2006. Report Finds Oregon TABOR “Rainy Day Amendment” is Misnamed and Would Make Recessions Worse.

Issue Brief, April 5, 2006: Oregon Stuck in Doonesbury

News Release, March 24, 2006. Colorado's Lesson for Oregon: Invest in Education and Public Infrastructure and Don't Take TABOR Route.

Issue Brief, April 22, 2004. If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Oregon’s current spending limit ties spending to what Oregonians can afford. (PDF)

Fact Sheet, March 16, 2004. Population Plus Inflation Spending Limit Would Cripple State-funded Services. (PDF)

Issue Brief, March 3, 2004. What is TABOR? (PDF)

OCPP CenterPoints Editorials and other materials

June 2006."Umbrella" for Sale.

April 9, 2006. Oregon must avoid budget straitjacket Colorado wore, an opinion column published in the Salem Statesman Journal.

September 2005. Does Oregon Still Believe in Itself?

March 2004. Beware Wacky Spending Limits.

Video

The Real Story Behind Tabor This is a 13-minute video about the so-called "taxpayer bill of rights" or TABOR that all policymakers - legislators, and voters facing an initiative - should consider before voting to place a Colorado-like spending limit in the state constitution.

TABOR and Direct Democracy: An Essay on the End of the Republic

We've written about why Oregon should learn from the mistakes in Colorado. This new book, published by Fulcrum, has the story straight from a Colorado Republican who was in the Legislature and now regrets having helped to craft the original legislation. (Click the book cover to purchase.)

You can also hear Brad Young talk about why states should not make the same mistake that Colorado made by watching (or downloading) The Real Story Behind TABOR, a short video.

Selected Studies of TABOR

Lyons, Karen and Nicholas Johnson, Education and Investment, Not TABOR, Fueled Colorado's Economic Growth in 1990s, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, March 23, 2006.

McGuire, Therese J. and Kim S. Rueben, The Colorado revenue limit: The economic effects of TABOR, Economic Policy Institute, March 23, 2006.

Bradley, David, Karen Lyons, and Iris J. Lav, A Faulty Fix: Repairing the "Ratchet" Will Not Repair TABOR, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, March 21, 2006.

Other Resources

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities TABOR resources and reports.

The Bell Policy Center's TABOR resources include education tools, links, reports, and issue briefs specifying TABOR’s impacts on the Colorado judicial branch, education, transportation, health services, the economy, and more.

The Center on Wisconsin Strategy did a short 2-pager, "Big Myths About Taxes in Wisconsin," that attacks the pro-TABOR arguments made in that state.

TABOR in the Media in Oregon

Sign for open primary, pass on spending limit, The Oregonian, July 5, 2006

Ballot proposal launches battle of words, wills, The Oregonian, April 25, 2006

Oregon must avoid budget straitjacket Colorado wore, Statesman Journal, Opinion pages, April 9, 2006

Colorado plan bad for Oregon, The Bulletin, September 20 2005

Spending portrayed as hero, villain, The Oregonian, March 19, 2005.