Colorado’s politicians underestimated pragmatic voters last week. Everything is costly now and many citizens clearly needed their refund money for living expenses. Voting against the proposed initiatives for that reason was both smart and understandable. But I think the majority of voters saw the potential weakening of TABOR and its eventual demise from the constant drip, drip, drip of ballot proposals asking citizens to forfeit their overpaid tax dollars.

Seems to me that the ANTI-TABOR folks have two options for getting rid of TABOR — repeal the constitutional amendment or render it impotent by successful ballot initiatives.

Once our refund dollars are completely encumbered for multi-year projects (such as tax relief) TABOR will drift into obscurity and become just another administrative nuisance. Why would a politician attempt a repeal when, historically, voters have willingly handed over their money thru penny-wise, pound-foolish initiatives?

Let’s protect this very powerful lever on Colorado’s state and local governments by always voting NO on retention initiatives and subsequently forcing a legitimate vote on all tax increases, as TABOR intended.

Alan Rasmussen Colorado Springs