The chairman of the powerful Joint Budget Committee has acknowledged on the record that a sweeping statewide property-tax hike pushed through last year by his fellow Democrats will subsidize new social programs--not just schools, as originally promised.

Democrat Bernie Buescher, of Grand Junction, said in a JBC meeting this week that some of the millions raised by the controversial tax hike will be used on Democrat Gov. Bill Ritter's "Building Blocks" program expanding low-income health care coverage.

Buescher was responding to a challenge moments earlier from Republican Rep. Al White, the House GOP's member on the committee, who had expressed frustration that

the new tax revenue was being diverted from statewide education funding. White was the only Republican to support the tax hike, which Ritter and his legislative allies call a "mill-levy freeze." It will cost taxpayers $3.8 billion over the next 10 years. 

"I personally did not vote for the mill-levy freeze for that purpose--to be able to free up $25 million for new programs," White, of Hayden, told fellow committee members.

Other legislative Republicans said they were dismayed but not surprised.

"This is turning into more and more of a shell game," said Senate GOP chief Andy McElhany, of Colorado Springs.

After a spike last year in the number of convicts who are paroled, Republicans on both House and Senate Judiciary committees are demanding an official explanation from the Colorado Parole Board.

After hearing from the Department of Corrections that discretionary parole releases have jumped dramatically in the last year--tallies vary from 40 percent to 80 percent--Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, said he and fellow GOP lawmakers decided to seek an audit of the policies and practices of the state's parole board.

"Coloradans depend on the parole board to keep violent criminals out of their neighborhoods and off their streets," Penry said.  "You have to start asking hard questions when there is a sudden surge in the number of people who are being released.

Penry added, "We have to make sure the public is not being exposed to increased risk by convicted criminals who are not ready to return to society."