Put taxpayer interests ahead of government

Kansas state Sen. John Vratil's recent comments about Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights show that Kansas' tax reform debate is a struggle over whether taxpayer or government interests should come first.

First, his claim that Colorado abandoned TABOR is not true.

After being enacted in 1992, taxpayers voted to temporarily lift the spending limit from 2005 to 2010 and put a modified limit in place beginning in 2011.

The senator's implication that TABOR was harmful to Colorado is common among those who put government spending ahead of taxpayers' interests.

In the years after TABOR was enacted, Colorado achieved one of the highest rates of economic growth in the country.

Colorado continues to be one of the best performing states in the region and far outpaces Kansas in job creation and other important economic measures.

Colorado's spending strategy also prompted more efficient use of taxpayer funds. For example, Colorado spends about $1,200 per-pupil less on K-12 education than Kansas yet has quite similar scores on national achievement tests. White and black students in Colorado have slightly higher composite scores in reading and math but Hispanic students perform about 1.5 percent higher in Kansas.

Kansas continues to lose residents to Colorado, a state with superior job creation and economic performance and that has returned over $2 billion to taxpayers because of its commonsense spending approach. Yet Sen. Vratil says he and other legislators want nothing to do with any restrictions on government spending.

That's putting government interests ahead of taxpayer interests.

Editor's Note: Kansas Policy Institute is an independent think-tank in Wichita that advocates for free market solutions and the protection of personal freedom for all Kansans. The writer of this piece is Barry W. Poulson, Ph.D., an adjunct fiscal policy fellow at KPI, who is a professor (retired) at the University of Colorado-Boulder and is the past president of the North American Economics and Finance Association.