On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

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Pay no attention to the growing estimate of what you and your fellow Coloradans will pay in property taxes next year. The higher taxes are exceptionally good news — and if you don’t believe it, just ask the governor.

“Property values are going up, the tax rate didn’t change, and there’s more revenue for K-12 education,” says Evan Dreyer, the governor’s spokesman. “What part of ‘good news’ does Mr. (Dennis) Gallagher not understand?”

Surely Gallagher, the Denver auditor, must have done something awfully dumb to earn this rebuke. But in fact, he merely had the sense to point out that voters asked to hike taxes should bear in mind, when weighing the pros and cons of each proposal, that their property taxes will be going up already no matter what.

Which is true. The governor and Democratic lawmakers brought this about last spring when they ignored the clear language of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which bans “a tax policy change directly causing a net tax revenue gain” without a vote of the people.

Rather than concede voter rights, statehouse leaders took it upon themselves to “freeze” property tax rates. And while this sounds harmless enough, it has jump-started a rise in tax burdens in many communities that is likely to last indefinitely — which was precisely the point.

Back in the spring, additional property tax revenue was supposed to reach $48 million next year. Now the Legislative Council is saying the bonanza will equal $114 million — and that’s only the first year’s installment of the windfall.

If the Ritter administration believes this prospect is unalloyed “good news,” perhaps it should consult those Coloradans who will be paying more property tax even though their incomes are flat or actually in decline. Or is the good news that they can always sell their homes if they someday find themselves in too much of a squeeze?

Whose tax is it anyway?

It’s one thing to pay a capital gains tax when an appreciating asset is sold; it’s quite another to be bled annually by rising tax bills that might bear no relation to a homeowner’s ability to pay.

On the bright side, the state’s new policy on property taxes does give Coloradans an unexpected reason to appreciate a soft housing market.

You’d like to think lawmakers would have second thoughts if property values began to soar again in 1990s fashion, but don’t count on it. It usually takes a grass-roots revolt before government concedes it doesn’t need every dollar of revenue.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal illustrates the point. Longtime residents of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, reeling from property tax hikes stoked by an influx of new wealth and rising home values, tried to amend the county charter to cap the increases. But when two-thirds of voters approved the amendment, Kauai officials moved the fight into the courts, where they ultimately prevailed.

For Coloradans who have lived under TABOR, this is where the story’s rhetoric gets amusing. According to the Journal, “Honolulu attorney Gary Slovin, for the county .. . . [argued] that allowing people to vote on taxes would create ‘chaos.’ A few members of the County Council publicly agreed. The Hawaii Government Employees Association, fearing government jobs held by union members might be cut, issued a statement to say that giving residents power over taxes was an ‘absurd proposition.’”

Officials in Colorado won’t claim it’s absurd for voters to wield power over taxes, of course, because we’ve somehow survived such a system for the past 15 years. But their resistance to any meaningful rollback or cap on property taxes is likely to be no less creative.

Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

READER COMMENTS

Wasn't there a 6 year period of unpleasantness about 231 years ago, and was not one of the causes of that unpleasant period 'taxation without representation'? Those who forget history (or change it to fit their relative truths) are condemned to repeat it.

Is history repeating itself ?

Those Democrats are so much smarter than the rest of us bumpkins. Its not a tax increase even though you will be paying more taxes. You people voted for the Dems and I hope your ready to bend over and grab your ankles as this is just the tip of the iceberg of more pillaging of your money to come.

How much is gonna be enough for these turkeys?

I seem to recall that you folks admitted that you didn't know what Bill Ritter would do, but you endorsed him anyway.

It looks like you have had enough of the "Colorado Promise" to raise taxes, destroy business, turn the lawyers loose, force people into unions, and create an unaffordable and unworkable health care system.

Has Dreyer ever heard the saying "pissing down our backs and telling us it is raining".

How dumb do they think we are?

> How dumb do they think we are? <

Based on the comments on this board, it would be impossible to overstate how stupid you and your buddies are.

wow...the inaccuracies spouted on vinnie's posts are astounding to be kind.

Voters in a majority of Colorado school districts approved allowing the gov to keep tax revenues over the amount otherwise allowed by the state's constitution, and the freeze applies only to those districts.

Any questions?

Tax and spend.

Tax and spend.

spend and tax.

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