To the contrary, Douglas Bruce believes there are limits. That's what TABOR was all about, to limit the growth of government in Colorado.
What's particularly libertarian about that? Isn't that one of the main planks of conservatism, if not the (pre-Bush era) Republican Party?
The so-called ratchet effect is nothing more than using last year's revenues and expenditures as a base for the next year, adjusting for population growth and inflation. The liberals in the media have been pointing to this "fault" in TABOR which needs correcting, even though thry were totally against the whole thing - including the right of citizens to vote on tax increases - when Amendment 1 came to the ballot in 1992 and claimed, along with Gov. Roy Romer, that passage of TABOR would destroy the state.
There followed some of the most prosperous years in Colorado history, with the state taking in so much in taxes that they had to be rebated to the citizens.
Unfortunately, anti-TABOR politicians of both parties managed to divert much of the excess revenue that should have been refunded to ordinary taxpayers to their friends who got them elected, which is why nobody in the state qualifies for the full amount of tax rebate they have coming -- and why neither side in the Ref C debate was speaking the truth about how much it was going to cost the "average" taxpayer. Too many skeletons in that closet, so just keep the door shut.
I still maintain that Doug Bruce is an extremist. This is from the "blue book" from the Colorado Legislative Council explaining the issues on the ballot this year:
Referendum C: State Spending
When the state collects less money than the spending limit
allows, there are no refunds. The next year's limit is calculated from
the amount of money actually collected in the prior year. For
example, the state experienced a recession during 2001 and the
amount of money collected in 2002 was $7.8 billion, while inflation
plus population growth would have allowed spending of $8.1 billion.
The next year's limit grew from the $7.8 billion, not the $8.1 billion.
This lowering of spending is known as the "ratchet-down" effect.
The amount the state can spend under TABOR is now permanently
below what it would be if no recession had occurred and spending
had grown by inflation plus population each year.
Figure 1 shows how the spending limit has operated and is
projected to operate from 1997 through 2010. The solid line is the
state spending limit, the dotted line shows the estimated state
spending limit without a recession, and the shaded areas represent
refunds. Beginning in 2006, the shaded area is the money that
Referendum C is asking voters to allow the state to spend.
There is also a chart showing the ratcheting down effect- see
http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/lcsstaff/bluebook/BlueBook2005.pdf