Date of Award

11-1-2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Matthew Wilson, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Katherine Freeman

Third Advisor

Tracy Mott

Fourth Advisor

Susan Sterett

Keywords

Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), Colorado state budget, Taxpayer generated laws

Abstract

Colorado's constitutional Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) is a product of the citizen initiative process, a mechanism of direct democracy that allows citizens to circumvent legislatures and enact laws themselves. A prominent argument against this process is that such a mode of lawmaking can generate conflicts within state constitutions and bring about unintended consequences. This paper considers the Colorado state budget difficulties that arose during the 2001 recession, the relationship of TABOR and those difficulties, and finds that TABOR resulted in unintended consequences that were unforeseen by voters who approved the measure. Examples of these unanticipated, unintended consequences include: significant budget cuts for higher education, reductions in state mental health services, and insufficiencies within the TABOR law regarding how TABOR refunds were to be made.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

Rights holder

Zak Brewer

File size

76 p.

File format

application/pdf

Language

en

Discipline

Finance

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