Republican lawmakers are responding with a chorus of told-ya-sos to an admission in court this week by the state treasurer that last year's freeze in the property-mill levy has raised property-tax bills across the state. The disclosure came in testimony in a lawsuit brought by a citizens group to halt the property-tax hike.

As reported in Wednesday's Rocky Mountain News--Democrat Treasurer Cary Kennedy, an architect of the controversial policy and an ally of the administration of Democrat Gov. Bill Ritter--conceded on the witness stand  that the mill-levy freeze changes the way taxes are calculated and raises property tax bills for many home- and business owners. Legislative Republicans, who all along have referred to the mill-levy freeze as a tax hike, say Kennedy's admission vindicates them because any change in tax policy, under Colorado's constitution, amounts to a tax hike that must be put to a public vote.

"Apparently, it took a Bible and a witness stand to get the governor and his allies to admit their tax hike is, in fact, a tax hike," said a bemused Senate GOP leader Andy McElhany. "Of course, the rest of the state already knew as much, especially when homeowners and business owners got their property-tax bills earlier this year."

Ritter and his Democrat allies who control the legislature imposed the tax hike without a vote of the people during the 2007 legislative session, claiming the school districts affected by the hike already approved local mill-levy freezes. The measure is projected to cost taxpayers some $3.8 billion over the next 10 years.