December 07, 2008 05:23 PM UTC

GOP Fumes As Mill-Levy "Freeze" Upheld

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post reports:

The Colorado Supreme Court on Friday said a law allowing local property taxes to grow can go forward – for now.

But the court stopped short of ruling on whether the law – which froze local mill levies that otherwise would have fallen – is constitutional, saying it still has not made a final decision in the case.

The ruling means all of the state’s eligible school districts can move ahead with certifying new mill-levy rates by a Dec. 15 deadline. The Colorado Department of Education earlier last week, citing the approaching deadline, filed a motion asking the court to rule on the case by Friday.

The seven-member court denied that request, but specifically said that the May 30 opinion by District Judge Christina Habas throwing out the new law was stayed. That means the mill-levy freeze – and not her ruling – is the law for now…

Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, said the justices – five appointed by Democratic governors – would likely overturn the May 30 ruling by Habas, an appointee of Republican former Gov. Bill Owens.

“I’ve always assumed that this court would place fidelity to the Democratic governor ahead of fidelity to the constitution,” Penry said. “This Supreme Court is the most partisan branch of government in Colorado.”

Penry can sulk all he wants, there’s a very simple bottom line to all of this:

The mill-levy freeze applies only in counties that already voted to “de-Bruce” – or opt out of revenue limitations imposed by TABOR. Attorneys for Ritter and the Department of Education have argued that those de-Brucing votes made the mill-levy freeze legal in those counties.

Which is probably why arch-conservative Sen. John Andrews proposed the same plan when the GOP was in charge. That’s also why incoming Sen. Al White publicly broke with Republican leadership last year and defended the freeze: everyone affected has already had a chance to vote on it. Therefore the plan is legal and entirely compatible with the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Clarification: even many Republicans understand how the mill-levy freeze is legal and defensible on a technical level. But more important to Sen.-elect White and others who support the plan is the fact that the mill-levy freeze is badly needed to fund Colorado’s struggling public schools.

You’d think that the stark reality of Colorado’s chronic underfunding of education would cut through some of the obstinate rhetoric here, but that would mean forsaking the ideological hard-headedness that, um, got Republicans where they are today…