In the face of a Republican outcry, Senate Democrats approved a fast-tracked property-tax hike today on most homes and businesses in Colorado, and they refused to put the issue to a statewide vote. It passed as part of the annual School Finance Act on a 19-15 vote, with all Republicans voting in opposition.

The tax hike -- which was pushed by Gov. Bill Ritter and will cost the public $1.7 billion over the next 10 years -- has been the focus of intense debate for weeks and  has dominated hallway discussions at the Capitol.

Assistant GOP Leader Nancy Spence denounces the governor's property-tax hike as Democrat Sen. Chris Romer listens.

Republicans have assailed the measure not only for raising property tax bills on people of modest means and fixed incomes, but also because it comes with no guarantee that proceeds will go, as promised, toward shoring up the state's school-funding needs. 

The GOP has also denounced the way the measure got rammed through -- flouting a state constitutional requirement that all tax hikes be put to a popular vote, while also skirting legislative procedure by dodging a public hearing in the Senate.  

Appealing to Democrats this morning to reconsider, Senate GOP chief Andy McElhany, of Colorado Springs, asked why the General Assembly was demanding more from taxpayers when they agreed just over a year ago to open their wallets via Referendum C. McElhany said that measure already is raking in over $1 billion a year above earlier projections.

"Even that does not seem to be enough for the General Assembly," he said.

The GOP's Sen. Scott Renfroe, of Eaton, echoed the point later in the floor debate when he observed, "We don't have a funding problem, we have a spending problem." 

Assisatant Republican leader Nancy Spence, of Centennial, the ranking GOP member of the Senate Education Committee, denounced majority Democrats for fast-tracking the tax hike and limiting input from the taxpaying public.

"We haven't had a chance to debate the bill, we can't amend the bill," Spence said. "I am deeply troubled by the process this bill is going through." 

The School Finance Act, which is Senate Bill 199, was introduced in the upper chamber in February. Yet, the tax hike was amended into the measure in the House only recently, having come under intense fire for weeks following its public debut.

As a result, the Senate Education Committee never got to hold public hearings on the tax hike. Today's vote on the Senate floor -- on which Democrats concurred with the House's amendments -- was the Senate's only chance to discuss the tax hike. Spence called on Democrats instead to refer the measure to the statewide ballot.

"I don't know why you would be afraid of sending it back to voters," she said.

Republican Sen. Josh Penry, of Fruita, also on the Education Committee, agreed and accused the bill's sponsor, Democrat Sen. Sue Windels, of Arvada, of ignoring the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights in the state Constitution.

"The hallmark of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights is that taxpayers have the right to vote on tax  increases," Penry said. He noted that the Democrat tax measure will raise the property-tax bill for a typical small business in his Western Slope district from $3,500 to $4,200 and added, "If that's not a tax increase, I don't know what is."

Penry also bemoaned the governor's refusal to consider viable alternatives proposed by Republicans to stabilize state education funding for years to come. McElhany and Spence proposed recently to securitize the state Lottery, which would reap a windfall for schools, but Ritter showed no interest.

"Tax hikes should be a last resort," Penry said. 

Republican Sen. Steve Johnson, of Fort Collins, the Senate GOP's representative on the powerful Joint Budget Committee, said the Democrat bill raised constitutional and other legal questions that remained unresolved, and he tried unsuccessfully to delay a vote on the measure until the questions were answered. 

Johnson said the tax hike is inviting an almost-certain lawsuit on constitutional grounds, and he admonished Windels for doing an end-run on public input.
"The ends don't justify the means," Johnson told her.

The tax hike was not the only sore point for Republicans in the School Finance Act. The GOP's Sen. Mike Kopp of Littleton pointed out the bill also includes a signifcant cut in construction funding for charter schools, reflecting key Democrats' opposition to the popular and growing charter-school movement.