Proper Symbolism
Proper Symbolism
The Green Bay Chronicle reports Wisconsin Rep. Frank Lasee is planning on introducing a version of the right-wing Taxpayer Bill of Rights (or TABOR) in his state “on a symbolic day — April 15, the deadline to file income taxes.”
Clever symbolism indeed, but given TABOR’s actual affect on the state of Colorado – the only place such legislation has been enacted (and where it is now being repealed) – a few other dates might be even more appropriate. For instance:
September 1: That’s the first day of public school in Green Bay. Students will likely notice TABOR’s deleterious effect on their education by the low-quality teachers and underfunded facilities, as well as the high number of their classmates who will have dropped out. In Colorado, the ratio of teacher salaries to average private-sector earnings is lower than in any other state. Since the passage of TABOR, the high school graduation rate has fallen 6 percent.
September 24: That’s the deadline for Wisconsin University students to pay their tuition without incurring a late fee. Thanks to reduced state aid on account of TABOR, that bill will increase steeply. In Colorado, tuition has shot through the roof. The state ranks 48th in the country in state funding for higher education per $1,000 of income.
May 1-8: That’s national “Cover The Uninsured Week.” The celebration will be larger than usual in Wisconsin, which will see a major increase in the rolls of the uninsured. TABOR has severely limited funding for health care in Colorado. The number of the state’s low-income children who lack health insurance has skyrocketed from 15 percent in 1992 to 27 percent in 2003, despite declines nationally.
The first Monday in September: That’s Labor Day. As a result of TABOR, fewer Wisconsonians will have to take a vacation on Labor Day — they won’t have jobs to begin with. Over a 44-month period ending in December 2004, Colorado hemorrhaged 68,000 jobs, a decline of 3.0 percent. In every other Mountain state — none of which has TABOR — the median job growth has been 4.5 percent during the same period.
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It’s also cute that they made an acronym out of the name of Horace Tabor — a Colorado figure that struck it big.
March 24th, 2005 at 6:21 pmGreat response and well-researched.
Not that I’m suggesting ThinkProgress do this–your mission is a bit different, but I’m wondering what a longer version would look like.
For example, some idea of what Colorado expects/demands in the way of federal services and subsidies. Just consider how many tax-payer supported military bases Colorado has: (for a start [url], http://www.coloradoguard.com/webpages/unit_locations.htm).
Likewise, what about Colorado’s agriculture, forestry, and mining industries?
Let me make clear I’m not Colorado-bashing: just wondering what needs to paid for and how it gets paid. Less state funding + less federal funding = ? & now the same for Wisconsin.
It’s that deficit thing, remember? (It’s okay: excepting China, Japan and EU, no one else does).
Let me also give people a chance to look at what the opposition–the Tax Foundation–has to say on this very issue: “An Analysis of Misleading Attacks on Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights” (url: http://www.taxfoundation.org/ff/colorado-tabor.html)
I note amusingly the sentence that starts the conclusion: “Contrary to the assertions of its opponents, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights has not decimated Colorado.”
I’m not sure that “opponents” have asserted that Colorado has been “decimated.” (Don’t recall the Mongol hordes sweeping in and killing 1 out of every 10 people. Nor do I recall reading extravagant, unsubstantiated claims as to the consequences of TABOR–neither here nor elsewhere).
Rather, the opponents of TABOR have asserted more like the following: that Colorado thus far has not been well-served by these cutbacks, and that the promised economic benefits from TABOR have failed to materialize. (That rising tide to float all boats, remember?)
But I guess it’s always easier to accuse your “opponents” of things they did not say, redefine the issues on terms you’re most comfortable with, and then offer the “common sense” refutation.
http://www.workingforchange.com/comic.cfm?itemid=18597
As the saying goes, “whatever.” (Or should that be: “We report. You decide”?)
March 24th, 2005 at 11:16 pmDitto on this being a really useful and relevant post. Thanks
March 24th, 2005 at 11:37 pmI’d like to suggest those of us who talk about TABOR use the term TABOW instead — for Taxpayers Bill of Wrongs. It’s amazing how easy it is to do — and how it makes listerners think. Obviously, it would be even more helpful if we had a few facts about the dangers of the tax freeze legislation (such as the Green Bay newspaper article) to back up why we call it TABOW.
I represent a group of about 800 progressives in southwest Wisconsin, called the Grassroots Citizens of Wisconsin.
March 30th, 2005 at 9:45 amTABOW is good. So is TABOG, coined by Dane County Supervisor Brett Hulsey and others, for Taxpayers Bill of Goods.
I bought a button on State Street in Madison last weekend that interpreted the acronym as Taxpayers Bitten on Rump.
Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign coined the acronym LIAR, for Legislators Intent on Avoiding Reform.
But my favorite variation on TABOR was the name coined by Bob Allen of AFSCME: Tax Avoiders Blocking Overdue Reform.
Rich Eggleston
P.S. I earn my living working for the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, and we have a fair amount of TABOR stuff on our web site, at
http://www.wiscities.org/
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