Stop TABOR

by | Aug 21, 2015 | Ads, Tax Reform

Earlier this week, I launched a petition to ask the North Carolina House of Representatives and Governor Pat McCrory to oppose the so-called Taxpayers Bill of Rights, or TABOR, that was passed by the Senate and would be put on the ballot during the presidential primary in March. TABOR itself is a bad idea but the process of making it an amendment to the constitution is worse and putting it on a ballot during a low turnout primary is just plain wrong.

Back in the 1990s, TABOR bills popped up in states across the nation. The only state to actually pass one is Colorado. Today, most people of both parties in Colorado see it as a big mistake. Funding for schools and universities plummeted, more children were left unvaccinated and the number of uninsured children doubled. Today, even Republicans in Colorado look for ways to circumvent the misguided legislation.

If states are the laboratories of democracy, then Colorado proved that TABOR is a failed experiment. North Carolina should not be the first state in the nation to show that it can’t learn from others’ mistakes. We certainly shouldn’t saddle future generations with such a bad idea by sticking it in our state’s constitution.

TABOR is certainly misguided but the process the Republican Senate proposes is equally wrong. They propose putting it on the same day as the presidential primary in March. Nothing else would be on the ballot and turnout will likely be only a fraction of the November election. If we’re going to take a step drastic enough to change the state’s constitution, we should be putting it on an election day that has the highest turnout possible. That’s what democracy looks like.

I hope that the House leadership and Governor McCrory will act more sensibly. Please take a moment to sign our petition and let them hear your voice.

Paid for by the Committee to Elect Holly Jones

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