Gazette editorial distorted mill levy freeze as "sinister tax increase" passed "without voter approval"

Summary: Editorializing on March 14 against Colorado's mill levy freeze, which it labeled "a sinister tax increase," The Gazette of Colorado Springs echoed previous misleading and false claims regarding the legislation that redistributes sources of funding between the state and individual school districts. Additionally, the newspaper cited Colorado Senate News as a source without disclosing that the website is produced by Colorado Senate Republicans.

In a March 14 editorial, The Gazette of Colorado Springs called the state's mill levy freeze enacted in May 2007 as Senate Bill 199 "a sinister tax increase," claiming that Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and the legislation's supporters in the Colorado General Assembly "finagl[ed] a tax increase without voter approval." As Colorado Media Matters has repeatedly noted, the provisions of the mill levy, or property tax, freeze apply only to school districts that voted to allow the retention of mill levy revenues above limits set in the state constitution.

The Gazette also stated that "taxpayers were lied to" in that "[w]hen Democrats pushed the tax increase in 2007, they told us it would fund education." In fact, SB 199 does fund the promised education priorities listed in the Gazette editorial: "full-day kindergarten, a shoring up of the State Education Fund, and the like." In announcing the mill levy freeze proposal, dubbed the Colorado's Children Amendment, Ritter's office also noted that the plan "will protect the state's General Fund" and quoted Ritter emphasizing that it would preserve funding "for higher education, health care and human services."

Further, the Gazette referred to Colorado Senate News as a source of information about Republican criticism of the mill levy freeze without disclosing that the website is an "online service of the Senate Minority Office."

From the editorial "Tax scam," published March 14 in The Gazette of Colorado Springs:

Coloradans have been scammed by a sinister tax increase that was promised for schools. Legislative Democrats last year pushed through a bill they called the "mill-levy freeze." By freezing mill levies -- the rate at which property is taxed in each jurisdiction -- the Legislature caused a tax increase. Without the freeze, mill levies are reduced to offset rising property values. The maneuver is estimated to cost the private economy nearly $4 billion over the next 10 years. Colorado's Constitution requires governments to seek voter approval of tax increases, so the freeze is considered an end-run around the law. Attorney General John Suthers advised legislators and Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter that the tax hike should be subject to voter approval, to obey state law. A pending lawsuit challenges the freeze, claiming it's illegal.

Regardless of what the court decides, taxpayers were lied to -- a fact made clear this week in the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee.

When Democrats pushed the tax increase in 2007, they told us it would fund education. Ritter and other leading Democrats said proceeds from the massive tax increase would fund things full-day kindergarten, a shoring up of the State Education Fund, and the like. To oppose the tax increase, they made it sound, was to oppose the children.

"The governor's plan averted a crisis and will keep the education fund from going broke in a few short years," Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer told the Rocky Mountain News last fall.

But now, the other shoe drops. Colorado Senate News reports that Rep. Al White, R-Hayden, complained this week during a Joint Budget Committee meeting that tax-increase money was being diverted from state education funding. White was the only Republican who supported the tax increase. In response to White's concern, committee chairman Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, confessed that millions raised by the tax increase would be used to expand low-income health coverage under Ritter's "Building Blocks" program.

[...]

By finagling a tax increase without voter approval, politicians decided they didn't care what the public wants. They sent a message that they know better than the electorate how much money should fund government. And worst of all, they lied. They told us the end-run was for learning. They were doing it for the children. In truth, they did it to raise funds that will be spent however they see fit, regardless of a law enacted directly by the people they're supposed to serve.

As Ritter noted in his March 13, 2007, announcement, the Colorado Children's Amendment was a plan to freeze mill levy rates in order to shift much of the burden of K-12 funding to the local property tax base, thereby freeing up state funds -- including $84 million annually for additional public education funding. The plan was designed to ensure the solvency of the State Education Fund and protect the state's General Fund from further encroachment by constitutionally mandated increases in minimum per pupil K-12 spending. Contrary to the Gazette's suggestion, Ritter's announcement noted that the plan would make funds available for non-education purposes:

The governor said the Colorado Children's Amendment also will protect the state's General Fund.

"Without a comprehensive plan such as this amendment, the state's General Fund -- which also pays for higher education, health care and human services -- would be forced to subsidize the State Ed Fund, and that would have harmed those other services," Ritter said.

The bill's fiscal note, prepared by the nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council Staff, estimated that because of initiatives mandated by the legislation, SB 199 would increase spending on preschool education by $6.7 million in FY 2007-08 and by $19.1 million in FY 2008-09. Additionally, the bill phases in an increase in minimum per pupil funding above levels mandated by the Colorado Constitution at an additional combined cost for FY 2007-08 and FY 2008-09 of $19.6 million.

Moreover, in stating that passage of the mill levy freeze meant that Democrats had "finagl[ed] a tax increase without voter approval," the Gazette failed to note that the provisions of the freeze apply only to school districts that voted to allow the retention of mill levy revenues above limits set in the state constitution.

In a December 14, 2007, article about a lawsuit against SB 199, The Denver Post reported that the rate freeze is applicable only in the 175 (of 178) Colorado school districts that voted to waive restrictions on retaining and spending revenues mandated by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) provisions of the state constitution. The Post also reported that under the law, 34 districts would see lower mill levies and 38 others would see no change:

The rate freeze means mill levies will be higher than they would have been in 106 districts, lower than they would have been in 34 districts and unchanged in 38 districts, according to last week's briefing. The freeze applies only to districts where voters have decided to shed certain Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, or TABOR, rules, and it also sets a mill-levy cap.

Ritter's spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said the freeze did not need to go to an election because voters in the districts where it applies have already decided to break free of TABOR.

"The question had already been asked and answered in 98 percent of the state -- 175 of 178 school districts," Dreyer said.

The property-tax rate freeze has drawn controversy since Ritter introduced it earlier this year as a way to raise money for public schools. Ritter announced last week that the money would be used to fund preschool and full-day kindergarten programs, as well as to hire dozens more guidance counselors to keep high schoolers from dropping out.

Additionally, in basing much of an editorial on what Colorado Senate News "reports," the Gazette followed a practice that Colorado Media Matters has pointed out of a mainstream media outlet echoing talking points produced and distributed by Colorado's Senate Republicans.

—E.B.