A Billion Reasons Colorado Taxpayers Should Not Trust the Colorado Supreme Court (and the rest of state government)

by CTBC Director | 5:56 pm, February 17, 2010 | Comments Off

Recovering from all the excitement of Monday’s front-page Denver Post story profiling the “tough vote” facing four Colorado Supreme Court justices in the upcoming statewide retention elections this November and scanning the internet for other items of interest (such as this article on the Supreme Court of Colorado and these news items about judicial performance evaluations and Clear The Bench Colorado picking up steam), I came across an interesting article with the intriguing title “A Billion Reasons Colorado Taxpayers Don’t Trust State Government” on the “A Line of Sight” blog.

The article recounts the accelerating erosion of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights during the last three years of one-party rule in Colorado:

Gov. Bill Ritter and the Democrat-controlled legislature have increased property taxes by more than $234 million a year, raised vehicle licensing “fees” by $250 million a year, instituted new hospital patient “fees” that will cost $600 million a year, and imposed some $180 million in new sales and use taxes.

All told, Ritter and the legislature have managed to increase the cost of taxes and fees by more than $1.1 billion a year and, incredibly, not once triggered Colorado’s constitutional requirement that taxes can be raised only by a vote of the people.

Taxpayer protections - even when written into the state constitution - are targets for continual political and legal assault by forces in and near government.

It’s a good analysis, although it downplays the role of previous Republican administrations (Ref. C?) and legislative majorities in starting Colorado down the slippery slope (the parallels to the national level are striking) - but most importantly, the article does not go nearly far enough in laying the blame where it most appropriately belongs: squarely at the feet of those who should have been the guardians of our Constitution (and our constitutional rights), the Colorado Supreme Court.

The article does do a pretty good job of listing the issues:

In 2007, Democrats changed the school finance act to allow local school districts to collect more property tax revenues and reduce the state’s share of K-12 education funding. Previously, even many Democrats acknowledged that such a change must be presented to the voters.

This time, however, Democrats commandeered the political will to pass such a law and constructed a legal argument which, although rejected by a lower court, ultimately prevailed in the Colorado Supreme Court. As a result, Coloradans will pay an extra $234 million this year in property taxes - and nearly $3.8 billion extra over 10 years.

This law - the notorious “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” - did not merely “prevail” in the Colorado Supreme Court; it’s passage was aided and abetted by the Mullarkey Court’s demonstrated hostility to TABOR and willingness to shred the Constitution wherever an excuse could be found (the possibility of executive-legislative-judicial collusion before the fact cannot be ruled out).

Thus emboldened, the 2009 legislature smashed another of TABOR’s prohibitions by eliminating the general fund spending limit without a public vote. Although Colorado Revised Statutes specifically referred to this provision as a “limitation” on the general fund, Democrats and their attorneys argued that it was instead an “allocation strategy” and, therefore, not subject to TABOR’s prohibition against weakening existing spending limits.

Last year’s unconstitutional repeal of the Arveschoug-Bird 6% limit on the growth of state spending in the 2009 legislative session (SB 228) likewise would never have been even proposed, much less passed, but for the Colorado Supreme Court “case that never was” - a legal challenge did NOT emerge because it was apparent that “the fix was in” following the Colorado Supreme Court’s blatantly unconstitutional ruling in the “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” case. The Mullarkey Majority thus “aided and abetted” the commission of a crime against the Colorado Constitution without even having to lift the proverbial pen to paper - and has clearly emboldened a legislature (and governor) in pursuit of every last dime they can squeeze out of Colorado citizens to spend according to their priorities.

Speaking of squeezing every last dime out of Colorado citizens - everything from the “Candy Tax” and the “Doggy Bag Tax” to a whole host of other taxes impacting Colorado consumers and businesses (oh, and farmers & ranchers, too) was only made possible by the judicial activism of the Mullarkey Majority on the Colorado Supreme Court:

In its ruling on the 2007 property tax increase, the supreme court also went out of its way to tip off lawmakers that they could also raise other taxes so long as they didn’t raise revenue above the TABOR spending limit.

The Colorado Supreme Court also aided and abetted perhaps the most unpopular new tax in Colorado history: the deeply regressive and punitive “FASTER” Colorado Car Tax (er, registration “fee” increase) along with a veritable explosion in new and increased “fees” designed to evade the TABOR requirement for prior voter approval of tax increases:

An even greater subterfuge, however, is the onslaught of taxes masquerading as fees. Generally, taxes - which are subject to TABOR and therefore subject to voter approval - are collected broadly and can be spent for any purpose. Fees, however, have long been understood to cover the cost of a regulatory function or of administration (e.g., licensing or registration) upon which the fee is assessed.

The article notes that the Colorado Car Tax (including the punitive “late fee”) is expected to take an additional $250M/year out of the pockets of Colorado drivers, and an additional “fee” charged on hospital services will likewise gouge the sick for $600M/year.

Together these two fees when fully implemented are projected to raise a combined $850 million a year. All other previously-existing state fees were projected to generate about $1.6 billion in 2009-10, illustrating how this new, expansive definition of “fee” threatens to become the exception that swallows the rule. With fees of this magnitude, voters may never be asked to approve another genuine tax.

(The article’s author is stealing my “good news, bad news” line - that, thanks to the Colorado Supreme Court, the Colorado Legislature won’t be increasing or passing new taxes this year, they’ll just eliminate existing tax credits/exemptions or call it a “fee” - a line that has proven uncomfortably prophetic).

If you don’t like all of these new and higher taxes (or “fees”, or “rate freezes”, or whatever) - blaming the Legislature who passed them, and the Governor who signed them into law, only tells half the story, because neither one could have done it without help - from the Mullarkey Majority on the Colorado Supreme Court.

Defend your right to have a vote before being taxed- and exercise YOUR right to vote “NO” on the four ‘unjust justices’ of the Mullarkey Majority (Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey) who need YOUR approval to continue taking away your constitutional rights: your right to vote on tax increases, your right to defend your homes and business from seizure by rapacious governments, and your right to enjoy the benefits of the rule of law, instead of rule by an oligarchy of activist, agenda-driven “justices.” Help toSupport Clear The Bench Colorado with your comments (Sound Off!), your contributions, and your “NO” vote on retaining these unjust justices!

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A Billion Reasons Colorado Taxpayers Should Not Trust the Colorado Supreme Court (and the rest of state government)

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