Once again, TABOR is under attack. This time, liberal politicians aren’t pretending to hide the ball. Instead, they’re openly berating the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights on the House and Senate floors, every chance they get. Denver state Rep. Sean Camacho is even sponsoring a resolution to force the state legislature into a lawsuit to try to get rid of TABOR entirely.

But there’s a big problem with his strategy — this lawsuit has already been tried before, and it lost. Badly.

In a nearly 10-year saga, various plaintiffs tried to convince federal courts that TABOR was unconstitutional.

It violated a “ form of government,” they said. In their view, government is done through elected representatives, and all the power ought to be centered on the politicians, not the people. This is a view that Rep. Camacho clearly shares, as hes freely admitted to the media that his proposed lawsuit is about the Legislature getting the power to spend as much as they want. The original lawsuit brought the theory that citizens initiatives on taxation don’t have a place in American government.

As you might imagine, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals shot them down in 2021. Here in Colorado, the right to run citizens ballot measures is guaranteed in our state constitution. We’ve purposely held back some power from politicians and given it directly to the people.

This recycled, short-sighted lawsuit also ignores political realities. TABOR enjoys the support of over 70% of Coloradans from across the partisan spectrum. While conservatives tend to be the ones who run campaigns defending TABOR, this bill of rights is firmly backed by Democratic, Republican, and unaffiliated voters as well as Gov. Jared Polis. TABOR has been written into the fabric of Colorado politics over the last 30 years and, in many ways, it helps define what it means to be a Coloradan.

The last time TABOR was under fire from the Legislature was in 2023, with the advent of Prop HH. If passed, Prop HH would have taken $10 billion from taxpayers and given it to the government. In effect, it would have eliminated TABOR refunds entirely. Thankfully, voters fought back on the ballot and sent Prop HH to a resounding 18-point defeat.

Nevertheless, some liberal politicians are at it again, launching their own version of a fight against TABOR.

But whether they go to court or to the ballot box, the writing is already on the wall.

The Taxpayers Bill of Rights is popular, sound, constitutional and here to stay.

Its an appropriate check on a government who would prefer to blame our rights for their inability to budget responsibly. The current “ shortfall” is a result of over-spending and the legislatures willingness to commit to fund programs far into the future without a guaranteed source of revenue.

They’re well aware of the limit voters have imposed on them through TABOR, and yet they’ve been committing money they don’t have for years. Its finally caught up to the legislature, and thats why they’re bringing back the age-old fight on TABOR.

But when your strategy amounts to using taxpayer dollars to sue the taxpayers to eliminate taxpayers rights, its time to reconsider who it is you’re actually standing for. Legislators need to look in the mirror, tighten their spending like Colorado families have to do every day, and be more responsible with the money they already have instead of constantly demanding more.

The state budget has ballooned to $44 billion, growing $20 billion over the last 10 years. The state budget isn’t suffering. The people in charge are misspending. And TABOR isn’t to blame.

When we protect TABOR, we protect the people, and we insist on the very Colorado principle that we know better than the government how to spend our own hard-earned dollars.

Michael Fields is the president of Advance Colorado.