Thousands of Aurora Voters Affected; Republican Chief Outraged
Face the State Fact Check
Face the State has obtained a political mailing sent to voters in Senate District 28 (click for PDF), currently held by state Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, which portrays a Democrat-led property tax rate increase passed in the 2007 legislative session not as an increase, but rather as a rate freeze. One side of the full-color mailer shows a $100 bill encased in ice with the words, "The Property Tax Rate You Pay. . . .Just Got FROZEN."
A Face the State inquiry into the tax measure, passed as Senate Bill 199, and the mail piece finds that the message sent to voters is not only deceptive, it's factually false. Without the passage of the tax measure, rates for millions of Coloradoans would have actually gone down. Democrat plans to “freeze” rates keeps mill levies in the majority of Colorado’s school districts from reducing to a level that would have kept income to government constant. That requirement was established in school-funding law to protect homeowners from paying more property tax simply as a result of a re-valuation of their property by county assessors.
The mailing makes several false claims about the tax increase plan, including that it “does not raise taxes” and “does not violate TABOR.” Both are patently false: Any action that causes government to collect more revenue than it otherwise would is, by definition, a tax increase. Additionally, Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, commonly known as TABOR, prohibits government from taking action that would result in higher revenues without approval from voters. The plan’s sponsors, overwhelmingly democrats, claim the property tax increase plan does not require such a vote.
The mailing appears to have been produced by consulting group Welchert & Britz. The firm's address return address is used on the piece and was produced on behalf of an unnamed client. The firm’s client list includes several liberal advocacy organizations, including the Colorado Education Association and several local teachers’ unions, that stand to gain literally billions in additional taxes from which future collective-bargaining compensation hikes may be leveraged.
Beyond its massive factual misrepresentations, the mailing refers to “Susan Williams,” even though the Senator’s name is Suzanne. State Republican chairman Dick Wadhams, a vocal opponent of the tax increase plan, did not mince words when asked for comment: