State government should be more representative
Editor:
Regarding the letter from Omer Humber on TABOR:
With July 4th earlier this week, it may have appeared appropriate that Omer Humble would cite the Declaration of Independence as justification for the TABOR Amendment over the U.S. Constitution.
As brilliant and inspiring as the Declaration was in 1776 and still is today, it is not the law of the land. The U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, became effective on March 4, 1790, and has been amended 26 times. It supersedes all previous forms of government, including the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and all state constitutions.
That TABOR is alleged to have violated Article IV, Section 4, of the Constitution will be an important constitutional law case that most likely will go to the Supreme Court. That will take many years.
Of immediate interest in Colorado is the mess our own state constitution is in. Whether TABOR violated the U.S. Constitution or not is irrelevant. It is a huge impediment to effective representative government in Colorado.
Jerry Fabyanic should have called for the repeal of all fiscally encumbering amendments: Gallagher Amendment, TABOR Amendment and Amendment 23. A more effective constitution would allow the legislature to actually act like a representative governing body.
Then the responsibility for effective government would fall to the voters; they would have to elect competent, independent-thinking legislators who would determine the appropriate levels of spending and taxes.
The Hickenlooper administration might then be able to pull the economy back up to the innovation-based, high-value-creating economy that we had in the 1990s.
Jim Leonard
Evergreen