Ethics complaint filed

Lobbyist targeted over e-mail backing tax plan

Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 25, 2007 at midnight

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A Republican lawmaker filed an ethics complaint against an education lobbyist on Tuesday, saying she was "deceptive" in an e-mail urging support for the governor's property tax plan.

Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, is the lone lawmaker involved, although his letter to the Senate president and House speaker begins, "We are formally lodging a complaint."

He named Lynne Garramone Mason, the lobbyist for the Colorado Education Association. CEA spokeswoman Deborah Fallin called the complaint baseless, and said it was nothing more than a political attack on Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter.

It is the second ethics complaint filed this year against a lobbyist. In both cases, the lobbyist is accused of using deception in attempts to pass or kill a bill.

In Mason's case, she sent an "action alert" e-mail about Ritter's plan to raise money for schools by stabilizing property tax rates. Mason said the plan would take the pressure off of "future cuts to K-12," which Lambert said was false. He said that under the voter-approved Amendment 23 "it is impossible to cut K-12 funding."

Lambert is wrong, said Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, who helped put Amendment 23 on the 2000 ballot before he was a lawmaker. Romer said Amendment 23 protects about 95 percent of school funding, but not special programs, discretionary spending, capital construction and such.

Mason also maintained that Ritter's proposal is not a tax increase, while Lambert and nearly every GOP lawmaker argue it is.

Legislative leaders must decide whether to appoint a legislative ethics committee to review Lambert's complaint.

Another ethics committee already has been appointed to investigate a complaint against William Mutch, the executive director of Colorado Concern, an influential business group. The complaint centers on phone calls that were made to try to defeat a home buyers protection bill.

Lobbyist Steve Durham, who originally was named in the complaint against Mutch, said, "I think we have to ask whether the legislature is in the business of regulating or attempting to deter free speech."

Mutch's lawyer has made the same argument, saying Mutch has a right to free speech.

Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, an attorney, said he finds the argument fascinating. The Denver Democrat said the issue is whether the legislature has the constitutional right to impose restrictions on lobbyists.

Legislative rule 36(b)(1) states that no person "engaged in lobbying shall . . . attempt to influence any legislator . . . by means of deceit . . . ."

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