This NYT editorial talks about how Coloradans voted down a $3.7 billion tax cut and lifted the U.S.'s toughest state spending and taxing limits.

Some excerpts:

The vote clearly has to do with the pain of a permanently underfinanced government. Middle-class and low-income residents were getting burned by ever deepening spending cuts in education, health care and transportation.

Colorado has the ninth-highest per capita personal income in the nation, and only Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts have larger proportions of college graduates. Yet over the past decade or so, Colorado has dropped to near the bottom among the states in funds for basic public services. Last November, Republicans lost control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since 1960, and Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, then shocked his base by supporting the suspension of the budget restrictions. ...

Taxpayers and politicians, including those in Washington, should take heed. This vote was a thumbs down on "starving the beast" - the Republican strategy of excessive tax cuts to force government to shrink.