Russell Long of Louisiana chaired the Senate Finance Committee for 15 years, negotiating the bipartisan tax restructuring desired by President Ronald Reagan well before Congressional Republicans committed themselves to tax cuts and nothing else. Apparently, Colorado voters have taken Long’s wry take on taxes to heart. The defeat of referendum CC last week doesn’t tell us nearly as much about political allegiances as many pundits would like you to believe. It does, however, suggest that Colorado residents, most of whom were unable to vote for or against TABOR in 1992, have only the sketchiest idea of how their tax system actually works.

A recent letter to the editor from a voter complaining that his property taxes have grown by $900 over the past two years, and then concluding this should serve as more than a sufficient increase, seems likely be surprised to learn that not a nickel of this additional revenue is passed through to the state. Colorado property taxes are largely levied as fiscal support for counties, special districts and school boards. The time may have arrived for the advocates of better schools, better roads and cheaper college tuition to reconsider how they talk about Colorado’s budget challenges. The emphasis should be on what has gone wrong.

A half dozen years ago I was driving across Arizona and noticed I was approaching a state park. I felt this might offer an interesting place to stop and prepare my lunch. Pulling into the entrance I found the gate padlocked with a heavy chain and an attached sign informing me the park would remain closed until the Legislature authorized its annual budget. Similarly, Republican states across the South, including Texas and Oklahoma, often fund their public schools far better than does Colorado. Although there is muted grumbling about the political ethics involved, their local school boards discovered decades ago that cancelling all non-academic programs until voters cough up adequate tax support works like a charm at the ballot box. No voter is willing to give up Friday night football!

Rather than touting how increased revenues will make life better in the Centennial state, perhaps it’s time to point out the governing realities that must come as a shock to many of the 10,000 newcomers arriving here each month. “Welcome to Colorado: where we only offer public education four days a week, our roads suck and we’d rather educate rich kids, whose parents can pay out-of-state tuition, than attempt to help your family with anything besides super-sized student loans. We could afford to do better, but why bother?” That’s a marketing message for our state that gags every Chamber of Commerce.

Of course, the pro-TABOR crowd would like you to believe Colorado’s state budget is bulging with waste, fraud and fiscal abuse. If our legislators would just learn to prioritize their spending, just like your family has to – figuring costs out at the kitchen table – we could find all the money we need. The truth be told, the legislature only controls about a third of state spending. No one can identify where all the wasted dollars are being wasted. With the defeat of referendum CC, our reliance on TABOR “work arounds” will only grow. The proposed “state option” for health care insurance anticipates the creation of yet another, off-budget TABOR enterprise.

The legislators who had good reason to pour themselves another drink, perhaps two, on election night in hopes of easing what promised to prove a fitful slumber were members of the Joint Budget Committee. There is substantial reason for suspicion that Democratic majorities authorized program expansions during the last session that will be difficult to keep funded in 2020. The governor is requesting an additional $28 million to keep his free kindergarten program functioning statewide. All this would have been much easier to manage with a few hundred million extra dollars now marked for refunds. Instead, rural counties will continue to return more miles of road to gravel than they will pave. More Colorado school districts will join the majority which have already opted for four-day teaching schedules and college tuition will leap again.

Does that make sense in a state bragging about the healthiest economy in the nation? And, what are we really doing to prepare for the more crowded future ahead of us? Can technology alone reduce traffic congestion? Will referendum DD revenues fully fund the state’s water needs? Hardly.

There actually are tipping points in public policy – points when we either push our challenges over the top of the hill or let them roll back over us, crushing our quality of life. Yes, this can happen here and Colorado’s gorgeous mountain vistas won’t serve to prop up our prize-winning economy.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former legislator. He can be reached at mnhwriter@msn.com.