A recent Colorado Politics story noted the budget challenges facing Colorado in the coming year, given the actions of the state legislature during the recent session. The article’s headline really said it all, “Colorado to see ‘enormous decrease’ in revenue, less TABOR refunds because of new tax laws.”

Now, if you are part of that relatively small segment of the population that believes the very existence of government is the problem, well, you are likely happy. You are deeply and horribly wrong, but you might well be happy. Years ago, the national anti-government movement argued, through lobbyist Grover Norquist, the government should basically go away. He argued “my goal is to cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” Norquist is 67 years old, a year older than me, and I can only assume he has declined to receive any Social Security benefits as a point of principle.

This thinking got some attention nationally, and here in Colorado we saw the so-called Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, TABOR, passed into law. TABOR sneakily seeks to destroy the state government’s ability to, well, govern, by choking off funding. TABOR requires any supposed “excess” funds be returned to the taxpayer, rather than reinvested in the state. These payments have varied over the years, and COVID definitely muddled the refund picture. So far, Colorado’s government has continued to exist, but due to some new laws affecting taxes, the state will see significant reductions in revenue, even as it has to pay out TABOR refunds (which will be smaller too).

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Again, if you are a government hater, you may be happy. But if you are a regular person, who sees value in government, even as we can argue about the size, scope and shape of any particular governmental agency, there are dark times ahead. Oh, and isn’t it interesting how the folks who want to cut taxes massively and to be “rid” of governmental oversight are almost always people who have achieved a level of income security wherein they don’t really need government services too much? And they also want to operate corporations with little or no regulation?

But I digress…

TABOR was, when it was passed and it continues to be, a bad idea that seeks to hobble government in good years, and to crush it in bad. It was cynical then and it is even more cruelly cynical now.

As we are still dealing with the global effects of the pandemic, we continue to see global inflation rates of 10% to more than 25% per year. Happily, President Joe Biden’s hard work has helped to reduce our national rate to 3.27% last month, though the MAGA crowd chooses to ignore that global implications, let alone give Biden any credit.

In Colorado, our hands are mostly tied. The legislature passed roughly 30 new laws that impact our tax situation, making our next budget year look even tighter than last year. According to the chief economist for the Legislative Council, Greg Sobetski, the current fiscal year will see a downgrade of revenue of $316 million, while next fiscal year looks to see an even steeper loss, with $1.64 billion gone. And he notes almost all of that is due to the tax credit bills that became law.

Look, people of good hearts can disagree about what government should be. It’s fair to discuss what government, at all levels — local, state and federal — should do and what they shouldn’t do. But the assertion government is itself the problem (as a guy named Reagan used to proclaim) is to miss that the government is, well, us. We elect it. If you don’t like it, vote for other candidates or run for office yourself (my congressional run in 2008, though unsuccessful at the ballot box, was a tremendous experience overall. I highly recommend it).

I don’t know about you, but I rather like knowing the fire department will show up if I have a fire, and the cops will come when I get into an accident or am the victim of a crime. Response times too slow? Well, maybe that’s because we keep cutting budgets.

I like having a state agency that keeps an eye on our open spaces and wildlife, and I like having an educational system that is open and public. I like having health departments that oversee the restaurants I visit, and I like having a state board that requires certain qualifications for various professions before folks can get a license or hang out a shingle.

If you believe all taxes are theft, I can recommend a few nations around the world with little or no taxes. Yemen comes to mind, as you can get away with most anything there. Of course, there aren’t really any reliable cops to call if someone else decides he wants your stuff, but hey, freedom!

Years ago, when I was in grad school, I learned of an interesting poll. Though this was a while back, I suspect the basic conclusions are still valid. A group of people were interviewed and asked if they thought the national government should be cut significantly. A solid majority back then, roughly 60% if I recall correctly, said yes.

But when a series of individual government programs were presented and the respondents were asked if these specific programs should be cut, there was not a majority in favor of cutting any of them. NASA? Nope, no cuts. Education? No. Highways? No, of course not. And on it went. Some programs were less popular than others, but overall, the message to the congress was to cut lots of stuff, but don’t cut anything we like, which is most everything. You can see why some lawmakers bang their heads against the wall from time to time.

I can’t say I’m thrilled to pay taxes, but I’m certainly willing to as the price we pay to live in this remarkable country. And I’d love to see TABOR go away, so we could govern our state by reason and not dogma. I don’t see TABOR being recalled anytime soon, but please take a moment and ponder whether slashing government just for the sake of cutting, is really the smart thing to do.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.