2006 Referendum C
Accountability Tour

In the November 2005 election, Colorado voters approved Referendum C. The measure gives the state government a five-year time-out from the revenue-collecting and spending constraints imposed by the TABOR amendment. It also permanently eliminated the so-called "ratchet effect," one of the four flaws that make TABOR so damaging to Colorado's fiscal health.

With voter approval, the state government was able to retain all taxes collected — retroactively to July 1, 2005 — and apply much of this money to restore cuts made during the 2001-03 recession. In the General Assembly's 2006 session, legislators applied Ref C funds as supplementals to the 2005-06 budget, and used the funds in planning for the 2006-07 budget.

Ref C passed by just a 4 percent margin, so legislators wanted to make sure that Colorado citizens understood the importance of passing the measure, and they wanted to explain how they were spending the Ref C money. Without Ref C, much of this money would have been refunded to Colorado businesses and individual taxpayers as the economy improved after the recession, as it was in the 1990s.

Legislators asked the Bell Policy Center to co-host a series of town hall meetings around the state to discuss the allocation of Ref C tax revenues. These public meetings featured a briefing on constitutional and statutory limits on the budget process and prompted lively discussion on spending priorities.

The Accountability Tour was led by Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff and Rep. Tom Massey, R- Poncha Springs. The Bell Policy Center handled logistics for the tour, and staff members joined the panel of speakers.

Resources from the
2006 Accountability Tour

Wade Buchanan's PowerPoint presentation for the Accountability Tour
The Colorado state budget
and Referendum C

The Ref C Accountability Tour podcast drew web listeners across the state

On April 5, 2006, state Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, and Wade Buchanan, president of the Bell Policy Center, fielded blogged-in questions from all over Colorado.

Take this link to the ProgressNowAction.org website to either replay the 30-minute program on your computer or download an MP3 or WMA file to your portable player.

Read a summary of the discussion

The Accountability Tour made 11 stops from February through April, 2006.

Check out the locations, panelists, news coverage and a few photos from the tour.