TABOR down the tube in Kansas

We in Wisconsin like to think that Kansas has a lot more red-state yahoos than we do, but here's some evidence to the contrary. The old Taxpayer Bill of Rights gambit is failing there, and even the Chamber of Commerce and parts of the business community are against it.

TABOR has become a dirty word, they say. It has in Wisconsin, too, so conservatives here just switched to a new name, the Taxpayers Protection Amendment.

The Wichita Capital-Journal reports:

Spending limits lose steam

Talk of adopting a constitutional amendment to limit state government spending fell to a whisper at the halfway mark of the 2006 session.

House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, said Friday that broad-based opposition undercut momentum for an amendment to the Kansas Constitution known as the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights.

"There was a pretty significant pushback from various angles, including chambers of commerce and some sectors of the business community," Mays said. "I'm not picking up much appetite among House members, Republican or Democrat, to even talk about the bill this year."

If a TABOR measure passed the Legislature and was endorsed by Kansas voters, caps would be placed on state revenue growth and elections would be held to decide tax hikes.

Alan Cobb, state director of the anti-tax organization Americans for Prosperity, said House leadership should be held accountable for failing to help TABOR gain traction this session.

"What's dead is reform of our tax climate and business climate, and that's because of the lack of leadership," Cobb said. "You're part of the problem or part of the solution. We're not seeing a whole lot of solutions from leadership."

Cobb directed much of his ire at Mays.

"Unfortunately, Doug is listening to the establishment and the insiders -- not the public," Cobb said.

Mays said the Legislature had more pressing matters to consider than TABOR.

"We need to try to focus on those things that need to be addressed this year -- spend our time wisely -- and not spend a great deal of time and political capital pursuing things that have absolutely no chance of passing," the House speaker said.

A group of Kansas organizations, the Coalition for a Prosperous Kansas, formed last year to lobby against TABOR.

Gary Brunk, executive director of Kansas Action for Children, which is a coalition member, said conservatives would continue to press for TABOR in Kansas despite poor results elsewhere.

"The business community in Colorado came out against TABOR because the state was not investing enough in education and transportation to make Colorado competitive," Brunk said. "TABOR has become a bad word."