Don't Bruce it up this time.

• Author: RUNDLES, JEFF
• Position: Brief Article

Like many fellow Coloradans, I have been concerned with sprawl and out-of-control growth for many years. Yet, like many people who favor growth control, I did not advocate the recently defeated Amendment 24, which would have put strict controls in the hands of voters, and -- not insignificantly -- made the rules a part of the state constitution.

Tough issues like growth controls should be addressed by our elected officials.

Unfortunately, our government long ago abdicated its power to do anything tough, which is why we have so many public-initiated constitutional amendments on every ballot.

We have, and have had, a legislature with no guts.

But Gov. Bill Owens continually amazes me. He's a tough guy It's not that I didn't expect him to be tough, it's just that his predecessor, Roy Romer, so lowered my expectations for toughness in a public official. Oh, Romer seemed tough, dressed tough, and often growled like he was tough, but he was only a master of rhetoric.

Case in point, with a grand relevance to the growth issue: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Douglas Bruce placed his notorious Tabor Amendment on the ballot several times. Tabor limits the growth of government spending, and it was Bruce's argument, ultimately successful, that government spending was out of control. Before it passed, Tabor went down to defeat, by thin margins, always after a barrage of opposition, always led by then-Gov. Romer. He basically said, Yes, we need to do something about out-of-control government spending, and support for the Tabor Amendment shows that the people want something done, but the amendment goes too far.

Twice, on election nights when the amendment was defeated, Romer vowed that he would lead the charge to attack the problem through the legislature. And twice he fell silent on the issue until the amendment came up on the ballot again. Nothing was ever done, by either Romer or the legislature, and Tabor remains the law of the land today That law does go too far, but -- since Romer and the legislature weren't willing to attack the issue -- too far is better than nowhere.

Now, fast...