General Fund Growth Limit Author Bird Critical of Law's Impact

Former Sen. Mike Bird, R-Colorado Springs, is known as one of the two lead sponsors of the state's annual general fund growth limit. According to a report in today's Denver Post, Bird is not happy with the impact the law has had on Colorado.

According to the article by the Post's Tim Hoover,

"As the bill went along, Arveschoug wanted the specific spending limit," Bird said. "I never wanted a specific limit because I knew that it would not have the flexibiity of tying it to personal income."

Bird, who served in the House and Senate between 1986 and 1994, said the downward ratchet on general fund spending was "an unfortunate byproduct" of the measure.

"It doesn't make any sense to have it (the general fund) go down and then start at the lower level," he said.

He also said the bill was passed at "a time when we weren't worried about an actual decline in the economy."

The article also says that former Rep. Steve Arveschoug, R-Pueblo, thinks that the law has worked as its sponsors intended.

"The perspective I had then and probably still have today," he said, "is that we were trying to look at what the citizens of Colorado could afford so that growth could not exceed taxpayers' ability to pay."

A bill sponsored by Sen. John P. Morse, D-Colorado Springs, would repeal the Arveschoug-Bird general fund growth limit.