Sounds good enough in theory: An initiative aimed at imposing strict limits on government spending. (It seems to make more structural sense, at least, than initiatives aimed at cutting taxes.) Should work, shouldn’t it?

The idea, called the Taxpayers Bill of Rights - TABOR, in shorthand - has circuled around the Northwest for some years, and in Oregon and Idaho in particular have gotten substantial pushes from fiscal conservatives. They’ve failed to gain implementing traction in part because of warnings about what’s been happening in the one state to pass and implement TABOR: Colorado.

In that state, services have been strapped and fees have risen to the breaking point. That assessment might be taken as the wailing of government burteaucrats except for what happened Tuesday: Statewide voters decided, 52%-48%, to in effect - for a five-year stretch - throw out TABOR restrictions and increase state budgets, and their own taxes. That action had been endorsed by the conservative Republican governor, Bill Owers, who said that TABOR restrictions had put the state in an untemable position.

The margin was not overwhelming. But consider the difficulty these days in getting a populace to vote for higher taxes, and you may reflect on how remarkable it was.

Or maybe not so remarkable. Could it be that the years of tax cut rhetoric are starting to wear thin? More clues on that coming next week. In California, recent polls are showing a probable big loss for Governor Arnold Schwartengger’s state spending limit proposal. And of much interest, look to Washington as the voters there on the I-912 transporation funding plan.

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