If heavy rains miraculously filled our reservoirs during this seemingly nonstop drought, we could relax a little.

But imagine a law that forbade us from refilling our reservoir in wet times, an edict mandating that once the water had ebbed so low, it never could be replenished to former levels.

That's the vicious "ratchet" effect of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights.

In a recession, everyone is forced to cut back. But in boom times, they can't pay off those overdue bills.

Spending levels that had sunk frightfully low could grow only incrementally.

Under TABOR, the view is not that the water level is too low; it's that the dam is too high.

Arizona's HCR2022 differs from Colorado's severe TABOR law by allowing a rainy day fund to be established - but only if the Legislature invokes that provision.

The Arizona Legislature also could apply TABOR to all our local governments, so towns, cities, counties and the state all would be limited to spending increases equal to inflation and population growth.

That leaves all the governmental entities with no ability to play catch-up after a recession.

Under TABOR, use of the inflation rate to gauge budget growth means continual cuts in services.

"It's a weight-loss diet, not a weight-maintenance diet," noted Wade Buchanan, president of The Bell Policy Center in Denver.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens now defends TABOR ("Taxpayers Bill of Rights working in Colorado," Thursday guest opinion) after having strongly supported a referendum last year that froze its effects for five years in his state.

Owens came under intense heat from conservative, anti-tax zealots in his push for the referendum.

"He's finished nationally," Grover G. Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform told The Washington Post.

Former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey said Owens had "put on the other team's uniform and is leading the charge."

But plenty of conservative Colorado Republicans backed Owens' move and the referendum to freeze TABOR.

Voters there saw clearly that Colorado has done well despite TABOR, not because of it.

But that state's ability to invest sufficiently in roads, education and other essentials would have been seriously hampered without the TABOR timeout that the referendum now provides.

In his defense of TABOR these days, Owens perhaps doth protest too much.

"It's like he jumped out of a burning plane, and he's being saved because of his parachute," Maura Policelli of the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities told The Denver Post.

"He's saying, 'Look at this beautiful parachute. That must mean that's a great plane.' "

Ultimately, the governor did what was best for Colorado - despite the critics.

Let's hope Arizona leaders see that writing on the wall.

When I outlined Arizona's TABOR proposal to Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. and of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, he groaned.

Then he chuckled and noted that if the initiative passes here, Colorado would benefit from Arizona's inability to compete.

Let's not give our Rocky Mountain neighbor that satisfaction. We should be smart enough to learn from their lamentable experience.