Oregon voters will be deciding today if there should be a limit on increases in the state's biennial budget to correspond to the rate of population growth, plus inflation. Two other states, Maine and Nebraska, have similar ballot initiatives. The three measures are modeled after Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights often called Tabor, which was approved in 1992, and resulted in a 20-percent reduction in financial support for higher education earlier this decade before voters narrowly agreed to roll back the cap last year. The Colorado experience, where higher education took the biggest hit of any sector of state government, is what has college leaders in this state worried. In some ways, the vote looms larger in Oregon than in Maine or Nebraska because, unlike in those states, overall appropriations for higher education in Oregon are actually lower than they were in 2001, by some $100-million. The outcome of these initiatives is being watched closely by anti-tax activists who tried to get similar measures on the ballot in more than a dozen other states this fall. A win anywhere could bolster their future attempts elsewhere, including in Michigan, Nevada, and Oklahoma.