Weekly Wrapup – “Dirty Dozen” tax increases signed into law, Amendment 54 overturned, school districts sue – taxpayers?

by CTBC Director | 9:12 am, February 28, 2010 | Comments Off

It’s been an eventful week in Colorado - unfortunately, so eventful that it’s been hard to keep up. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to give any one of these issues the attention (and analysis) they deserve this week - particularly the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling on Amendment 54, which calls for a thoughtful (and time-consuming) assessment, particularly in the context of other cases on campaign finance and political speech coming before the court.  It should be interesting, for example, to contrast the court’s ruling on one set of restrictions on political speech with another. In other news, Governor Ritter signed nine tax increase bills into law this week (part of the “Dirty Dozen” tax increase bills exploiting last year’s “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” ruling to circumvent the TABOR requirement to receive prior voter approval before raising taxes.  As previously noted, many (if not all) of these tax increase bills (now laws) are likely to be challenged in court as violations of the Colorado Constitution - almost certainly to end up before the Colorado Supreme Court sometime next year, making the composition of the court an issue of extreme interest to the businesses, ranchers & farmers, and the employed (and those seeking employment) and consumers (basically, everyone in Colorado - even dogs!) hurt by these (dubiously constitutional) tax increases. Another bit of news related to the Colorado Supreme Court that escaped much notice:  Lobbying groups want taxpayers to underwrite their School Funding Lawsuit against the State of Colorado.  Yes, that’s right: special-interest lobbyists want taxpayers to fund a lawsuit against the state (defended by taxpayer money).  The goal of these lobbyist groups is to get each school district to help fund the cause… How is this related to the Colorado Supreme Court?  Well, the lawsuits are attempting to exploit the court’s ruling in the Lobato school funding case - in which the Mullarkey Court overturned lower courts that had held (correctly) that school funding decisions are a matter of policy - not law - and are therefore the job of elected legislators - not appointed judges - to decide. Sending issues of educational budgetary policy to the courts (instead of the appropriate venue of elected legislators or school boards) is troubling not only on constitutional grounds, but as a matter of precedent and policy; in fact, “most states realize the bad policy and bad consequences of adequacy lawsuits and are moving away from them. Colorado is out of sync for its courts to be sanctioning such action.“ One short week, two big campaign finance cases, three MAJOR examples of how much the Colorado Supreme Court affects all of us - on so many levels - and why your four “NO” votes in the upcoming retention elections for the unjust justices of the Mullarkey Majority are the MOST important votes you can cast in this very important election year. Yes, you can 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 home and business from seizure by rapacious governments, and your right to enjoy the benefits of the rule of law, instead of suffering under rule by activist, agenda-driven “justices.”  Support Clear The Bench Colorado with your comments (Sound Off!) and your contributions - and vote “NO” on retaining these unjust justices on the bench!

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