TABOR could be overridden again in Lakewood, a suburb of Denver. A provision that will be on the November ballot seeks to renew a measure that has allowed the city to spend money above state budget limits since 1999.
TABOR, which stands for the “Taxpayer’s Bill Of Rights,” is a set of state provisions that limits the amount of money the government can keep. It was passed in 1992 after a man named Doug Bruce authored it. Any act of overriding TABOR is called “de-Brucing.”Currently, Lakewood city council members against the renewal have sent robotic telephone calls to residents in the city, and now one city councilman has admitted that the calls were sent using resources at Libertarian Party headquarters, according to the Denver Post:
“The message was not very accurate,” added Councilwoman Cheryl Wise. She said the city has had to bypass getting open- space money because a tight budget kept it from coming up with matching funds. With last year’s sales-tax hike, the money now is available.
Wise also is irked that Anderson, Elliott and Stack have “chosen not to speak at the public policy table” and have voted “to deny the citizens an opportunity to express their voice, which is what TABOR is all about.”
A public hearing on the proposed ballot issue will be at 7 p.m. Aug. 28 at Lakewood City Hall.
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