Republican lawmakers seek to give voters a veto over governor’s property-tax hike

Amid new figures that show the governor's statewide property-tax hike will claim more than twice the amount originally promised, two Republican lawmakers are saying they will try to give voters a chance to repeal the measure.

As reported in today's Rocky Mountain News, Sen. Mike Kopp, of Littleton, and Rep. Cory Gardner, of Yuma, announced this week they will carry a bill to refer the matter to the November 2008 ballot so that voters can have a say over a policy that was passed last spring without public approval.

“This tax hike has become a runaway train. The state’s take just keeps rising," Kopp said. "The state’s top attorney has advised the legislature that this issue has to go to the people. That didn’t happen, and now we’re looking at an ever-growing tax increase that the citizens have yet to vote on.”

The tax increase, signed into law by the governor in May, had been projected to raise an additional $48 million for the state treasury in its first year, but the new numbers compiled by the legislature's research staff at Gardner's request show the first-year take is now $114 million.

“Gov. Ritter was wrong when the tax increase was $48 million, and he’s wrong now that it’s $114 million," Gardner said today. "The state Constitution requires a vote of the the people on any tax increase. What is Bill Ritter afraid of?”

The governor's measure, which he says will shore up the State Education Fund, freezes the property mill levy in almost all school districts statewide. That will result in rising tax bills for home and business owners in most school districts as property values rise. 

The tax hike has stirred controversy from the start not only because of its sweeping effect on homes and businesses statewide but also because Ritter and ruling legislative Democrats enacted it without consulting voters under the state's constitutional Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

In April, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers issued a memo that recommended submitting the tax hike to the voters in order to ensure compliance with the constitution, but Ritter has disregarded the attorney general's finding, arguing that his plan does not constitute a tax hike. 

While Republicans in the General Assembly have been nearly unanimous all along in their opposition to the property-tax hike, Gov. Bill Ritter and his administration recently have been getting push-back from members of their own party as well.  Denver's Democrat City Auditor Dennis Gallagher announced that voters should temper their decision in November about raising the city's property taxes for assorted projects with the understanding that their taxes already are going up under Ritter's statewide tax hike.

Some Democrats also have expressed concern that none of the revenue that is raised by the tax hike will actually go to local school districts. Denver Democrat Rep. Jerry Frangas said he will introduce a measure to redirect $9 million of the tax hike's revenue away from the state to Denver Public Schools -- a move unlikely to sit well with the Ritter administration.