Redstate

By NightTwister Posted in State Politics — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

This was the title today of an article at the Rocky Mountain News. Denver District Court Judge Christina Habas ruled that collecting an additional $117,838,000.00 in property taxes this year compared to last year amounted to a tax increase.

For those of you that are unaware, Colorado has a Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) law that requires a vote of the people for any tax increase. Our new Democrat Governor, Bill Ritter pushed SB07-199 through without a corresponding vote of the people. This was a mill levy freeze intended to stop the loss of revenue due to a dip in the state economy. The TABOR law requires that taxes be at a fixed percentage of the State's GDP. When it goes down, taxes go down. When it goes up, taxes go up (with a fixed upper limit).

"The court concludes," Habas wrote after 10 pages of analysis, that "the direct impact of SB 199 was to change 'tax policy.'"

This is a huge victory for the taxpayers of Colorado. According to an email received from Jon Caldera at the The Independence Institute,

This whole sordid affair could have been avoided had the Governor behaved like a gentleman and asked voters first before raising taxes, as required by the state constitution. The Governor refuses to take No for an answer, and plans to continue his abuse of taxpayers by wasting more time and money appealing Judge Habas's decision to the Colorado Supreme Court.

The Colorado Supreme Court doesn't hold a very favorable view of the TABOR law, but it is expected that they will uphold this ruling. Bill Ritter's political stock continues to decline, which is good news for Republicans who hope to replace him in 2010.

Night Twister