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Originally Posted by Elspode
Except in Kansas, which isn't really a State, but more of a backwater cesspool of cows, corn and cash-driven politics, all swirled up in a yummy nougat of religion.
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Patrick, I'll see your Kansas and raise you one Colorado. In 1992, Colorado voters passed something called the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) which put strict restrictions on the amount of tax revenues available to state government here. Colorado's population is, in general, well educated, well to do, and from somewhere else.
Very few of the people who live here now grew up here. Native Coloradoans, such as myself, are scarce as hen's teeth. So, these folks who grew up in states with public funding for education and health care, got their share of the pie, migrated to Colorado, and passed the TABOR amendnment. The result has been a true disaster.
To quote to Dr. Stephen Berman, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and former President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, “It really is a travesty that a state as wealthy as Colorado and with as high an educational level has more restrictive health policies than Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Wyoming, [and] New Mexico. It’s just
inexcusable.”
Well, not to the Focus on the Family Crowd who were part of the influx of out-of-state immigrants. According to the non-partisen
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities These good Christians and other Colorado conservatives have managed to achieve the following with TABOR:
Under TABOR, Colorado declined from 35th to 49th in the nation in K-12 spending as a percentage of personal income.
Under TABOR, Colorado declined from 23rd to 48th in the nation in the percentage of pregnant women receiving adequate access to prenatal care, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Under TABOR, the share of low-income children lacking health insurance has doubled in Colorado, even as it has fallen in the nation as a whole. Colorado now ranks last among the 50 states on this measure.
TABOR has also affected healthcare for adults. Colorado has fallen from 20th to 48th for the percentage of low-income non-elderly adults covered under health insurance.
In 2002, Colorado ranked 49th in the nation in both the percentage of low-income non-elderly adults and low-income children covered by Medicaid.
The Rocky Mountain News used to have a little banner that read "Tis a pleasure to live in Colorado." Well, maybe so - for a priviledged few.
