Colorado: state of fiscal conflict.

• Author: Griesemer, Jim
• Position: Column

THE STATE OF COLORADO IS IN A STATE OF IRONY. A VAST and growing incongruity exists between what might be expected in so wealthy and wonderful a place as Colorado and what is actually occurring here.

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For example, Colorado is one of the richest states in the nation in terms of per capita income (seventh nationally), yet, even with the benefit of an economic recovery, the state is unable to restore dramatic budget cuts that have affected many state functions.

Colorado is a state where citizens have approved an initiative providing badly needed funding for K-12 education while at the same time watching its premier public higher-education system sink toward second-rate status for lack of financial support.

It is a place where citizens value strong law enforcement and effective courts. Yet it has seen extraordinary cuts in court funding, cuts made in the face of increases in the number of cases to be handled and a frightening rise in probation-officer case loads.

Colorado boasts some of the highest levels of achievement in the nation. Thanks largely to in-migration, the state ranks second nationally in terms of the number of adults holding a college degree. Yet Hispanics, the fastest-growing demographic group in the state, represent 25 percent of all K-12 students but only 15 percent of all high school graduates.

Colorado is a pro-business state, yet constitutional limitations have steadily made it less tax-friendly to businesses. While residential property represents about 74 percent of the actual tax base, residential owners are assessed only at 47 percent of property value, leaving business to carry a disproportionate share of the tax burden. This is further exacerbated by a business personal-property tax that now accounts for 12.5 percent of the entire property-tax base.

Colorado is proud of its low state-tax burden, 49th in the nation as a percent of personal income in 2002. Yet, because the state is a place that relies far more on local government than state government for services, it has, not surprisingly, one of the highest local government tax burdens in the nation (11th).

Colorado is also a place that extolls the values of limited government. Yet it has more than 2,500 local governments--among the greatest number of any state.

Colorado is a state that properly values individualism, yet it is a place that has devised a system for initiated constitutional amendments that cedes power from individual citizens to...