What's on the ballot today is the question of whether to temporarily suspend Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) in order to let state government spend more money. The result will be closely watched in Oklahoma, Maine, and Wisconsin, where conservatives are crafting ballot initiatives based on the very Colorado plan that may be changed today.
The last election of this sort was Alabama's ill-fated tax referendum in 2002. In Alabama a coalition not unlike the one assembled in Colorado in support of altering TABOR--a conservative Republican governor, business interests and Democrats--mustered a measly 33 percent of the vote if favor of a $1.2 billion tax increase.
Although the margin certainly won't be as lopsided, a similar result in Colorado wouldn't be surprising. Much of the current electoral strength of the Republican Party nationally is attributable to the appeal of their low-tax mantra.
If the TABOR reforms pass, however, the voters of a fairly conservative state will have said that higher taxes are preferable to reduced government spending. That might be significant enough for politicians nationwide to take notice.
