Election Day arrives with billions at stake in Colorado

DENVER — After watching an expensive, bitter campaign, Colorado voters went to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to ease the limits on state spending and surrender billions of dollars in taxpayer refunds in the process.

Both sides of the debate over Referendum C mounted ad-rich get-out-the-vote efforts because polls have suggested the vote is a tossup.

The measure, crafted by Democrats and Republicans including Gov. Bill Owens, would allow the state to keep an estimated $3.7 billion over five years that would otherwise be refunded to taxpayers under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the 1992 constitutional amendment considered the nation’s strictest cap on government spending.

Patricia Kropf, a retired dental office manager who lives in Denver, said Tuesday she voted against the measure.

“We don’t trust the government, and we don’t know what they would do with the money. If it was a tax when they took it, it’s a tax when they keep it,” said Kropf, 62, a Republican.

Randy Wood, a 45-year-old PTA member with two daughters in Denver public schools, said he voted in favor because he worries about more cuts in education after seeing music and arts suffer.

“To see these programs just fall by the wayside, it’s doing and injustice to the kids. I think that (Referendum C and a companion measure) would at least put some money back in them,” said Wood, a computer software trainer who’s not affiliated with either major party.

Secretary of State Gigi Dennis predicted voter turnout of 45 percent, which would be near the odd-year election record of 47.2 percent in 2003, when voters overwhelmingly defeated a $2 billion proposal for unspecified water projects.

The TABOR measure has faced tough opposition from conservatives, who see it as an assault on tax limits at a time they are trying to persuade other states to follow Colorado’s lead.

California will vote on whether to limit state spending on Nov. 8. Other states considering their version of the measure include Kansas, Ohio, Maine, Nevada, Oklahoma and Arizona.

Jon Caldara, spokesman for the “Vote No; It’s Your Dough” campaign, said opponents spent the last full day of the campaign trying to convince voters it would be a mistake to give up tax surplus refunds.

“Once people get in the voting booth, they will think about politicians under the gold dome (of the state Capitol), and they will think about their families, and they will vote for their families,” he said.

TABOR limits government tax and spending increases by linking them to inflation and population. Since a recession hit in 2001, Colorado lawmakers have carved $1.1 billion from the budget over three years, much of it from higher education and health care.

A companion measure on Tuesday’s ballot, Referendum D, would allow the state to borrow up to $2.1 billion for roads, school maintenance, pensions and other projects if C passes.

The vote ends a contentious, approximately $8 million campaign over the plan to suspend one of the key features of TABOR. Owens has warned that a failure to pass the plan will lead to the closure of 11 state parks, $12 million in cuts for health care for low-income and uninsured residents, a $7.7 million slash in financial aid of students and the elimination more than 600 government jobs.

Opponents say politicians are trying to grab taxpayer money to avoid making tough decisions, and they contend the state’s budget still has room to make cuts or find savings.

The Marillac Clinic in Grand Junction, which provides medical, dental, and mental care to about 5,000 lower-income residents, gets about 35 percent of its funding from the state. The clinic could lose that money if Referendum C fails, executive director Steve Hurd said Monday.

The clinic’s medical director, Doug Shank, said he voted yes on Referenda C and D on a mail-in ballot.

“My biggest concern is things like health care, obviously because that is where I work, and higher education,” Shank said Monday. His two daughters attend Colorado School of Mines and Mesa State College.