There Ought to be a Law

Well, it turns out that there is a law, the Colorado Constitution. The problem is that Bill Ritter is reluctant to follow it. He thinks that he and his allies in the legislature are above the law.

We've written about his problem before. Recall that Bill Ritter appointed a former judge to the Commission on Judicial Discipline and then wanted him seated before he was confirmed. When he couldn't have his way, he wanted to know what was on the agenda of the commission. His minions threatened to sue. Problem is that the Colorado Constitution mandates (ill advisedly) that the Commission operate in secret, even from the Governor. That was a lawsuit that wasn't going anywhere.

Yesterday, both Mount Virtus and Colorado Senate News wrote about Bill Ritter's latest brush with the Colorado Constitution, the TABOR amendment. TABOR stands for Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Many Democrats, including Bill Ritter, think that the taxpayers have no rights.

Last year, Bill Ritter proposed a $1.3 Billion dollar tax "freeze" on property taxes claiming that the money would go to education. The problem is that he didn't want to take his tax increase before the voters as TABOR requires. That created justification for a lawsuit filed by some folks in Mesa County to block the tax freeze.

The whole scheme very likely fell apart yesterday when it was admitted that the money from the tax freeze would not be used for schools. It is hard to see how the courts can avoid falling back on TABOR it the money is just going into the general fund.

Bill Ritter wouldn't have a problem if he just had the self discipline to follow the Colorado Constitution.

Ritter Has No Respect For The Constitution

Once again, Bill Ritter demonstrated his contempt for the Colorado Constitution. He spoke to the Colorado News Editors and Publishers at their annual convention on Thursday:

He said state lawmakers could increase severance taxes or reduce the tax credits. If lawmakers don't act, others are willing to put a measure on the ballot to collect more money from Colorado's booming energy economy.

He seems to believe that the legislature has the power to change tax policy and tax rates without going to the people. It doesn't.

Instead of asking the legislature to send a referendum to the people on the subject, he sought to try to force legislators to act unconstitutionally with the following statement:

"If we decide to do nothing at all, there are going to be people out there that I think will push the agenda anyway. The question becomes where you dedicate the money, and that's also a very lively conversation. We have very significant needs around higher education funding, and we have significant needs around transportation funding, and those certainly are on the list. There are people who think we should pursue a health care agenda with severance taxes, others who say we should pursue a K-12 agenda, some who say it should be about open space and another crowd that says it should be about renewable energy,"

Bill Ritter is a lawyer with a lawyer's contempt for the law.

CBS4Denver has more.

Added: We may have been victimized by poor reporting by CBS4Denver. The Durango Herald has a different take:

Gov. Bill Ritter and legislative leaders will decide by next month whether to ask voters to raise taxes on the gas and oil industry.

If there is a lesson here, it is that Bill Ritter has destroyed his credibility about his willingness to follow the Constitution with the property tax "freeze." We and others are willing to believe the worst about him when it comes to taxes.

Hillman: An End Run on Taxpayers

Former acting treasurer Mark Hillman writes about the end run around the taxpayers being run by Bill Ritter:

Republicans wouldn’t have dreamed of this storyline, but for the second time in less than a year, Democrat Gov. Bill Ritter is proposing a major tax increase.

And just like last time, he doesn’t want to let you vote on it.

Taxpayers who have just received their property tax bill could be forgiven for mistaking last year’s tax "freeze" for a tax hike. After all, when the legislature and the governor pass a new law that causes you to pay more than you would have otherwise, most people understandably think their taxes have been raised.

But since your taxes were "frozen," you don’t get to vote – even though the Taxpayers Bill of Rights in the state constitution says you should. (If only you had a law degree or a union membership, it would all make perfect sense.)

Now the governor [ Bill Ritter ] wants to pull a similar legal slight of hand on the cost of renewing license plates on your vehicle.

Read more

Picking My Pocket

Some years ago, I voted for TABOR. I was a late convert. I wasn't eleigible to vote in Colorado until 1990, and that year, I voted against it along with a majority of Colorado citizens.

The legislature responded by immediately raising taxes, as they had done immediately after the first TABOR loss in 1988. They couldn't seem to realize that they were rubbing the voter's faces in the TABOR losses and that eventually, voters would get angry.

In 1992, I was ready to vote for TABOR, and did so, again with a majority of Colorado citizens.

Now comes Bill Ritter who wants to get rid of TABOR. If he can't get rid of TABOR, he wants to emasculate it. Meanwhile, he can't seem to follow the constitution. He wants to raise taxes, so he calls them fees.

He has put out the word that he will be putting a bill before the legislature to raise $500,000,000. That is a lot of zeroes. He doesn't seem to have learned anything. If this legislature and governor were turned loose from TABOR the level of taxation imposed on Colorado citizens would make Californians and Taxachuttes citizens blush.

Fool me once...

The Denver Post article we linked to now has 227 comments. Usually, they are lucky to get five. Bill Ritter will be a one term governor, but he can do a lot of damage in that one term.

Looking For A Tax To Raise

If the Colorado economy weren't about to tank, Bill Ritter would very likely be trying to raise income taxes or property taxes (again). With TABOR still in force, Ritter and company can only try to raise taxes through elections. That limits attempts to the month of November. Each missed November is a missed "opportunity."

We had speculated elsewhere that the easiest tax to try to raise is the Severance Tax because the companies which pay that tax have no vote. We had thought that Ritter would sting the voters with a Transportation tax or a Higher Education tax, and then do the easy tax.

We were wrong, or were we? The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that Ritter is preparing the ground for a Severance tax increase vote this year.

We suspect that Ritter wanted to raise taxes for these other items but got scared off by the economy. So now, the easy tax may be the only tax he can try to raise.

Bill Ritter and The World's Oldest Profession

More than a year ago, we wrote a blog entry that might have been called "A Ho House on Every Block." Not coincidentally, it was about a Bill Ritter campaign promise to build shooting ranges around the state that we knew he wouldn't keep. He didn't keep it but it got him votes, and that is what politics is all about, right? Big Blue Lie Machine.

The thing that amazed us at the time was that we had spoken to two Republicans who lived ten miles apart, both of whom would be voting for Ritter. Their reasons: One was certain that Ritter would bring gun control to Colorado and the other thought Ritter would protect hunter's rights. In 2006, Bill Ritter was all things to all people. Big Blue Lie Machine.

We were reminded of that essay and that theme when Bill Ritter said the following about TABOR:

Most, however, agree that if voters want the state to make health care and higher education more affordable or maintain and improve roads, the state as a whole needs to start untangling the constitution's fiscal knot.

Ritter views TABOR as the tightest part of that knot. He wants to maintain what he calls the "virtuous" part of TABOR, that requires a public vote on any tax increase or change in tax policy.

Isn't Bill Ritter in effect saying "If you look hard enough, you can find some virtue even in a Ho?" Can't you hear him saying "But my wife wants this Ho run out of town!"

Ritter Responds to Mesa County Lawsuit

A blog like this becomes a repository of history, not only of what is written here, but of what has been said. Eventually the data base becomes formidible enough that politicians know that if they lie they will be called on it. Bill Ritter's staff continued to feed The Big Blue Lie Machine with this statement, and if this site had gone into operation in January, it would be easy to demonstrate (sigh). It's not too late to start.

Today, Bill Ritter's staff said this about the lawsuit against the 2007 School Finance Act:

"Every day, Gov. Ritter and the legislators who supported the 2007 School Finance Act are fighting on behalf of Colorado's children, on behalf of Colorado's local schools and on behalf of Colorado's future.

Actually, Bill Ritter is in Afganistan today, playing pretend Commander in Chief of the Colorado National Guard. One hopes that Colorado taxpayers aren't paying for this boondoogle, but we likely are. [ Added: it turns out the Pentagon is paying - still Colorado taxpayers last we heard. ]

Most troubling is that there is no guarantee that a single extra dollar of these additional taxes will end up in any school district's coffer. The legislature is pulling a fast one on the school districts by forcing them to substitute local money for state money, leaving the state legislature to spend the money on non education special interests.

"The lawsuit instigated by Jon Caldara is politically motivated and threatens to hold our children and our local schools hostage. We are confident the lawsuit will fail and we can return our focus where it belongs - on our children.

There is room for honest disagreement here, and likely some dishonest disagreement as well. Many, including the Mesa County Commissioners and the Colorado Attorney General believe this law violates not only the spirit of TABOR, it violates its plain language. Since when is forcing the state legislature and Governor to prove in court that they didn't violate their oaths of office by passing and signing an unconstitutional law "politically motivated?"

"SB 199 has great support around Colorado, from business organizations to community colleges to local school districts. What's more, voters in 175 of 178 school districts have already voted to invest local revenue in their local schools. The question has been asked and answered by 98 percent of the voters in Colorado. SB 199 simply gave voice to the voters.

Voters weren't told when they "debruced," as the process was called, that they were doing anything more than allowing their districts to keep monies in excess of TABOR limits. Individual districts cannot raise taxes without voter approval, so why should the state be allowed to circumvent this fundamental protection?

It is a flat out, bald faced lie to say that "SB 199 simply gave voice to the voters." SB 199 could have given voice to the voters if the legislature had allowed it to be put to the voters. This lawsuit aims to force that outcome.

"The Office of Legislative Legal Services, in 2004 and again in 2007, along with Gov. Ritter's chief legal counsel, have issued opinions that put SB199 on solid legal footing. We look forward to vigorously defending the children of Colorado against this lawsuit."

This sleazy paragraph leaves out an important fact and tells another lie. The State's Attorney General, John Suthers issued an opinion that the tax increase must go before the voters. When Bill Ritter and the legislature cannot get a favorable ruling out of the state's Attorney General, they wheel out an unelected lawyer to issue the ruling they want.

Colorado Senate News reports that AG John Suthers took the unusual step of going to the legislature to explain his position:

Suthers said the proposal to freeze the tax rate, or mill levy, in local school districts -- raising tax bills as property values rise -- takes away an important protection for voters. That's so, he said, even in the majority of school districts that have voted over the years to let their local schools keep more revenue. Suthers said the voters in those districts did not vote to give up control over their tax rates.

If the legislature were causing school district budgets to increase by the amount of the taxes being collected, Ritter's staff might be able to claim that they are "vigorously defending the children of Colorado against this lawsuit." The money isn't going to school districts or even necessarily to children. It is going into the general fund to be wasted by the same cynical politicians who are cynically claiming that the law they passed is "for the children." It isn't "for the children," it's "for the politicians."

The Big Blue Lie Machine is blowing steam out every crack and crevice.