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.
"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. 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." |
Critics of the tax hike, including some local school board members, counter that the local voters only had agreed to let their districts keep extra revenue that otherwise would have to be refunded under the state constitutional spending limits. Those critics, some of whom have testified in the ongoing lawsuit, say those voters were told at the time that they would not have to pay in more taxes--which they now are doing.
Republicans also point out that local voters never intended for the state government to be the beneficiary of local school district elections.
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Sen. Andy McElhany |
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Treasurer Cary Kennedy |
"Let's not forget that the school districts are getting absolutely nothing out of the governor's property-tax hike," said Republican Rep. Cory Gardner, of Yuma, who has helped lead the charge against the policy. The districts are being forced to collect the taxes, Gardner said, yet the state is withholding the same amount of money from what it annually budgets to those districts.
"In other words, the districts get to do the dirty work, but the state walks away with the loot," Gardner said. "That is not what those voters had in mind when they approved their local ballot issues."
The tax hike has stirred controversy almost from its enactment last year, raising an outcry from Republicans who said Colorado's constitutional Taxpayer's Bill of Rights requires that it be submitted to voters. In April of 2007, Attorney General John Suthers issued an opinion stating the measure should indeed go to voters in order to assure compliance with the constitution.
The governor and other supporters of the tax hike have argued it is intended to fund public education, but critics have said it will be impossible to track the revenue raised by the tax once it is funneled into the state budget. Confirming those concerns, the Democrats' own legislative budget chief acknowledged early in the 2008 legislative session that some of the revenue actually would fund children's health care.