TABOR Didn’t Build the Potholes

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack

Bureaucracy and pet projects did — and it’s time to realign our priorities.

Colorado’s roads crumble, our classrooms overflow, and every budget cycle we hear the same refrain: “It’s TABOR’s fault.” Critics of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights insist that this constitutional guardrail has starved government of the resources it needs to educate children, maintain infrastructure, and keep the state running. But what if the potholes and crowded classrooms aren’t a symptom of too little revenue, but of misplaced priorities?

The truth is, Colorado’s budget has grown steadily for years. Billions more flow into the state’s coffers than a decade ago. Yet the very areas citizens rely on most—roads, schools, public safety—continue to lag. TABOR didn’t cause that disconnect. Political choices did. If anything, TABOR has forced transparency: when politicians want to spend more, they must ask the voters’ permission. What bothers many legislators is not that TABOR denies them money, but that it denies them unchecked control over their budget.

The Spending Problem No One Wants to Talk About

Let’s be clear: the needs are real. Colorado highways are congested, teachers underpaid, fire districts stretched thin. But before we accept the argument that TABOR must be gutted to solve these problems, we should ask a simple question: Where has the money already gone?

It has gone into bureaucracy. Layers of administrators and compliance staff in agencies and school districts multiply faster than the teachers and police officers that citizens actually see and need. It has gone into pet projects and subsidies, from green energy carve-outs to film credits, which may sound good on paper but rarely justify the return. It has led to entitlement growth, including Medicaid expansion, housing programs, and grants that balloon year after year, consuming a larger share of the budget with little measurable progress.

And it has gone into obligations like Colorado’s PERA (Public Employees’ Retirement Association), the state’s public employee pension system, which siphons off billions to cover past promises. Every dollar sent to shore up pension liabilities is a dollar not available for textbooks, bridges, or patrol cars.

The examples are not theoretical. A Denver audit found nearly $400,000 in mental-health grant funds left unspent—money that could have supported real services but instead sat idle. The state’s FAIR Plan, designed to offer property insurance where private companies would not, has enrolled only a few dozen customers despite the infrastructure built to support it. Billions in homelessness initiatives across the Front Range have left tent encampments as visible as ever. These aren’t failures of revenue—they’re failures of governance.

Alternatives to Destroying TABOR

If the problem is a lack of spending discipline, then the solution is not to scrap taxpayer protections. The solution is to demand that government put first things first.

1. Prioritize Core Services. Roads, schools, and public safety should not be funded after every new program has taken its slice. They should be funded before anything else. A “core services test” could require that the state fully fund these essentials before expanding to new initiatives.

2. Redirect Ineffective Spending. Instead of chasing fashionable causes or writing blank checks to underperforming nonprofits, Colorado should audit every program and redirect funds from those with weak outcomes. Dollars currently tied up in low-impact housing initiatives or corporate incentives would do far more good in classrooms and road maintenance.

3. Strengthen Local Flexibility. Local governments often know their needs best, but get tied in knots by state rules. Streamlining grants so that rural fire districts or school districts can access funds directly would stretch existing dollars further without raising taxes.

4. Reform Pensions and Entitlements. Until PERA and other long-term obligations are stabilized, they will continue to cannibalize the present. Modernizing contributions and capping unsustainable growth would free space in the budget for immediate needs.

5. Demand Outcome-Based Funding. Citizens deserve to see results. Education spending should be tied to student proficiency, transportation dollars to actual road quality, and public safety funding to crime reduction. Taxpayers are not ATM machines; they are investors, entitled to a return measured in results, not rhetoric.

Why Preserving TABOR Matters

TABOR does not prevent Colorado from funding its priorities. It prevents politicians from growing government beyond the consent of the governed. Destroying TABOR would not guarantee better schools or smoother highways. It would guarantee that government can expand without accountability.

There is a reason politicians chafe against asking voters for permission: voters force discipline. They demand a clear justification for higher taxes or new spending. If programs cannot pass that test, perhaps the problem lies not with voters or with TABOR, but with the programs themselves.

TABOR is not the enemy of progress. It is the safeguard of trust. When citizens know they have the final say, they are more willing to fund real needs. Strip away that protection, and you erode the very trust that makes collective investment possible.

Conclusion

Colorado does not need to gut TABOR to fix what matters. We need to fix our priorities. Roads, schools, and safety are not underfunded because taxpayers are stingy; they are underfunded because government has treated them as afterthoughts. Before asking voters for more, leaders should demonstrate that they can effectively steward what they already have.

TABOR didn’t build the potholes. Misplaced priorities did. The solution is not to destroy taxpayer protections but to demand better from those entrusted with our dollars. Colorado can pave its roads, pay its teachers, and protect its communities—not by weakening TABOR, but by strengthening discipline, transparency, and accountability.

Hancock also publishes on Substack. You can check out more of his work here.

Michael A. Hancock is a retired high-tech executive, visionary, musician, and composer, exploring diverse interests—from religion and arts to politics and philosophy—offering thoughtful insights on the intersections of culture, innovation, and society.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.