Colorado voters passed Amendment 1, the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights about 10 years ago. It restricted the rate of increase in spending to the sum of inflation plus population growth. Revenues collected above that amount had to be refunded unless the voters approved letting government keep it (that happens about half the time at the local level). Tax increases have to be approved by the voters.

Of course, the usual suspects denounced TABOR as an end of world as they knew it. In that, they were partially right. Before TABOR, every legislative session would feature new spending programs with new taxes to pay for their pet projects. Since TABOR, legislators have been forced to prioritize spending. While the revenues grew rapidly during the 1990s, spending was constrained and most of the excess revenues were given back to the taxpayers. As a result, when the economic slowdown happened, our budget was already pretty lean so the shortfalls were much less than what many other states faced.

Several years ago, I remember seeing a bumper sticker on the back of a woman's car that read, "Life was more fun before Amendment One." I guess her idea of fun was spending other people's money. Too bad, so sad, but she'll have to find other ways to have fun.

Thank you, Doug Bruce!