Caldara sues over tax rate for schools

April M. Washington

Friday, December 14, 2007

Anti-tax crusader Jon Caldara filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the governor's property-tax plan to prop up school funding.

Caldara says the new law requires a vote of the people.

Gov. Bill Ritter's spokesman Evan Dreyer characterized the class action as frivolous and said it was nothing more than "typical Jon Caldara shenanigans holding children of the state hostage."

Six months ago, Ritter and Democrats pushed through a freeze on property tax rates in most school districts. Rates otherwise would have declined under a 1994 law.

The lawsuit asks a Denver District Court to strike down the new law, arguing it amounts to a tax policy change and should have gone to the voters as required by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

"This bill has to do with respecting the taxpayers and asking them first before the state takes money out their pockets," said Caldara, president of the Independence Institute, a think tank based in Golden.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six plaintiffs and taxpayers, including the Mesa County Board of Commissioners and Main Street Cafe in Grand Junction and a former Boulder County school board member.

Richard Westfall, an attorney who filed the lawsuit, said he will ask the court next week to fast-track the complaint before property tax bills are delivered in January.

Democrats approved the plan after analysts predicted the state education fund would go broke by the 2011-12 school year without more revenue.

Ritter's administration argues the plan does not constitute a tax hike because voters in 175 of 178 school districts waived such votes on the school portion of their property taxes over the years.

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