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Gov. Bill Ritter is a coward for pushing SB 199 — a property tax increase — without a vote of the people. Why is he afraid of a vote of the people?
The legislators who supported Ritter on this are also cowards, and are his puppets.
Mr. Ritter, don’t you think we pay enough now? Please answer yes or no. We don’t want a long answer full of a politician’s gibberish.
Folks, don’t think this will be the last tax or fee increase. These puppets like the word “fee” instead of “tax.” As you read this, don’t think the Democrats aren’t thinking of new and higher fees and taxes. God help the property owner 5, 10, 15 years down the road, as stated in Vincent Carroll’s On Point column item of May 3, “A slap at taxpayers ... ”

Bill Huffor, Woodland Park

READER COMMENTS

They have to figure out some way to pay for their sanctuary policies.This is only the beginning.
The Democratic party is well known for raising taxes.Why should Ritter be any different?
Look people no one is minding the store.You have someone in the tax offce writing her and her boyfriend big fat checks on our dime and having a grand old time.to the tune of 10 million plus. Then you have workers on the city payroll making over $100,000 a year not doing her job but going to college all on the public's dime.This is probably just the tip of the iceberg.You have a legislature that as far as I can see pushed around some bills were quiet at what they were doing and at the end of the day,did nothing to better this state.Addressed none of the main issues that people are concerned about,but they managed to slip in a tax hike.
Tricks their magically delicious!

Boohoo community traitors

Ritter and the Democrats are dealing with mill levy stabilization issues that the cowardly Republicans are afraid to touch. Our state needs to help our K-12 school districts so that our kids can compete in the global market but all the coward conservatives can do is screech about taxes. If you cowards are so adamant against government funding of education why are you so flaccid about our monumental waste of resources and taxes in Iraq? Where is your outrage about those expenditures for the war profiteers.

The people are with Ritter and the Dems on this just like they were on Ref. C. How many people are hurting today because of the missed rebates? Only the extreme ideologues hate funding education and helping our children.

Thank you Wes. You are absolutely correct.

Boo hoo indeed. What's the matter boys, couldn't stifle enough votes last time and now you're having a hard time swallowing the will of the people? Or is it just now dawning on you that your cronies were voted out for all sorts of good reasons? Well, take a big whiff, because this is how it is now. Deal with it.

But wait........IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN! And this jerk-off Ritter had the kids in front of him when he signed the bill on Wednesday. How touching!.

How come there is a problem with school funding? I think there is something called Amendment 23 that was supposed to fix this. And every year school districts ask for more money from homeowners through bond issues. Didn't Ref. C also put more $$ into schools?

Homeowners are ALWAYS the ones politicians turn to when they need more money. Why not increase the income tax rate so EVERYONE helps fund schools? And my Mormon neighbor that has 5 kids pays the same tax I do for schools, even though I do not have kids.

But wait, IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!

Like previous letter writers have said recently, "Dems are in power so hang on to your wallets!".

They ARE Democrat's would anyone expect any thing less from them??

Sit back and watch the Dems. Then, cast your vote in 2008!!

Owens and the rubberstamps had plenty of time to deal with this mill levy stabilization issue but chose to punt instead. Democrats actually work on solutions to real problems rather than worry about who is sleeping together. Oh for the days when gay marriage was the top priority of state government eh boys?

Too bad Dan and ideologues aren't more concerned about handing their wallets over to big oil and the war profiteers but they believe the rich never have enough money?

So what did you guys have to cut out of your family budgets because you didn't get your tax rebate this year? Oh the suffering and anguish.

The comparison of local education funding to a national war in Iraq are insane. If you take the time to read the GAO reports you will see a direct correlation of military budget to revenue collected by corporate gains tax. Almost dollar for dollar.

What we don't see is the same accountability in property tax. Someone explain how more money will solve the school problem? Show one direct link where throwing more money, without a new plan, does the trick? Isn't this the same thing Congress is asking the President about the war? How does more money solve the problem, if we do the same things over and over and over again?

This, to me, is not an issue of Democrat or Republican, but of accountability for spending. I want to know what improvements will be made that will provide a reasonable person to assume success for public education if I am going to pay for it.

As a libertarian, I do not believe in the Government spending more of my money without showing improvement and indications of how an increase in budget will lead to results. As a businessman, I would have to answer to my superiors if I asked for a budget increase to provide additional service, and have benchmarks and a plan to show the difference. I expect the same from my government, or I will not participate in an arbitrary increase, without any reasonable expectation for successful results.

This whole "tax increase needs to be voted argument" is stupid.

By this argument if you get cost of living raises every year, but stay in the same marginal tax bracket, the fact that you're paying more taxes (on your higher income) is a tax increase.

The other stupid and dishonest part of this debate is the cry "it must be voted on!"

Wake up and smell the De-Brucing! IT HAS!!!

Every school district that the law applies to has already voted to let property tax revenue increase (at the same mill levy rate), but the state law needs to change to allow those districits to keep the money.

Well Dan my perspective is that based on our lifestyles and status in the world, our public education system has been quite successful. You do want an educated and competitive workforce to maintain our position in the world don't you? Aren't investments in assets and labor some of the keys to a successful business? I'm sorry there is no free lunch guy but sometimes the price is worth the product. I believe this is a good investment in our society even if it is funding public institutions.

Here is an abstract of what the School Finance Act will do.

"The Act increases total funding for education in Colorado by $310 million, a 6.6 percent increase. An amendment to the Act will keep the State Education Fund from becoming insolvent in 2011 as projections called for. Other benefits of the Act:

* Allows popular votes in 175 of 178 school districts around Colorado to take effect, enabling these districts to retain revenues over their TABOR limits.

* Begins to address the growing inequities between the state share of K-12 education funding and the local share. Twenty years ago, local districts picked up 60 percent of total costs. Today, the state pays about 65 percent. In 10 years, it will be nearly 75 percent. Increased state funding means a loss of local control.

* Keeps $42 million in the State Education Fund in FY07/08 that otherwise would have been spent by stabilizing the local share of K-12 funding. Without the stabilization, the General Fund would continue to be forced to back fill the Ed Fund. In FY11/12 and FY12/13, that would have amounted to $386 million from the General Fund.

* Provides about $6 million to get 2,000 low-income children currently on waiting lists into pre-school.

* Lowers property tax rates in 34 school districts to 27 mills ($27 per $1,000 of assessed valuation), allowing those districts to keep $12 million in the first year. This begins to address the wide gulf in school property tax rates across Colorado. In 1994, all districts paid the same rate. Today some districts' rates are more than 20 times those of other districts."

A better question should be:

Why has State law under the previous republican governor not allowed the will expressed by the voters of 175 of 178 school districts to be implemented, and allow those school districts to retain the full properrty tax levies?

A 175 of 178 school districts did vote to be exempt from TABOR but the 1994 School Finance Act superceded TABOR and overrode the voters in those districts. In effect the voters in 175 school districts have already voted to keep the mill levy constant.

Here is a website that gives a lot of detail about the relationship between Amendment 23, the 1994 School Finance Act and the 2007 School Finance Act

http://www.coloradokids.org/includes/downloads/milllevy.pdf?PHPSESSID=4df89843e276181a319c9ecc1d3f3c7b

Wes,

You've got some nerve introducing facts into this debate!

Repubgscan't

I know it is considered dirty tricks by the Republicans to debate based on information. They much prefer debating based on emotions and their guts. Their "gut" tells them that funding public institutions is a socialist conspiracy. They want to shield their minds from the inconvenient truth that the one school was funding by all the ranchers in the valley and supported by trappers who knew that they were never going to learn to read in their lifetimes.

You tell the Republicans are engaging in fantasy perceptions when they say things like this:

"The comparison of local education funding to a national war in Iraq are insane. If you take the time to read the GAO reports you will see a direct correlation of military budget to revenue collected by corporate gains tax. Almost dollar for dollar."

So we're suppose to believe that corporations are paying for the occupation of Iraq and not China. Hmmm. Last time I looked the only President in the last forty years to balance the budget was a Democrat while the current Klepto in the White House is responsible for four of the five highest deficits in the history of the country. I find it interesting in a 1984 sort of way that Republicans believe they are fiscally responsible when those dreadful "facts" show that they are the proliferate spenders in the history of the country. Most interesting.

Dan: "But wait, IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!"

Yes, Dan, and the money we spend on our military is just for the benefit of the troops. We should quit spending money on "things" like our children and our military, right, Dan?

Such short-sighted "thinking". Imagine a grown man not realizing that the money we spend on education is not just for the children, but for our future, Dan's, mine and everyone else's. There is a crying need for a better educated America. The utterly selfish attitude of people like Dan is the reason we are slowly losing our grip on first place in the world.

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