Ritter property-tax hike takes another detour; critics charge ‘runaround’

A key Democrat lawmaker said today the governor’s mill-levy “freeze” – proposed last week amid fanfare as a way to raise $65 million for schools – will not be introduced in the Senate after all. Instead, the controversial hike in most Coloradans’ property taxes now will be amended into the annual School Finance Act in the House.

The latest twist with the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t tax hike had critics wondering if the Ritter administration is backpedaling in the face of mounting political push-back since he debuted the proposal. The disclosure by Democrat Senate Education Committee Chair Sue Windels, of Arvada, before the Senate Appropriations Committee this morning, rankled committee Republicans.

“They’re playing keep-away with this thing,” said the GOP’s Sen. Steve Johnson, of Fort Collins.

“Last week, Sen. Windels told the Education Committee that the mill-levy freeze would be amended into the School Finance Act on the Senate floor this week, and that was after we had thought she was going to move the amendment in committee,” Johnson said. “Now, she’s saying that we won’t debate it at all until the House looks at it because the lawyers aren’t done examing the proposal. This is an end-run on an end-run, and it all amounts to a runaround. The public deserves an open debate soon on what will happen to property taxes.”

Johnson also wondered why the governor bothered with a high-profile news conference to unveil the tax hike last week if he wasn’t even sure whether he could or

should proceed with the proposal. The pending proposal, championed in the Senate by Windels, would freeze the proper mill levies on commercial and residential property in almost all of the state’s 178 school districts, raising tax bills next year as property values increase.

When Windels withdrew the tax hike from consideration in the Education Committee last week, Republican Sen. Josh Penry, of Fruita, noted that even Democrats weren’t all in agreement on the tax hike, and he chided its backers for proposing to spend all of the increased revenue on new programs rather than on stabilizing the State Education Fund.

Johnson said it now appears the governor and Windels are going back to the drawing board.

“I’m not sure what the strategy is in all this,” said Johnson, who also represents Senate Republicans on the powerful Joint Budget Committee. “Maybe they’re unsure the measure is legal or, on the other hand, maybe they realize the taxpayers and especially seniors on a fixed income aren’t going to be crazy about a hike in their property tax bills.”

Either way, Johnson said, it is wrong to withhold a sweeping tax hike from timely consideration and public debate in the upper legislative chamber.