On the September 13 broadcast of KBDI Channel 12's Independent Thinking, host Jon Caldara allowed state House Minority Leader Mike May (R-Parker) to repeat the falsehood that under the Colorado Children's Amendment -- education funding legislation that Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter proposed and enacted as part of Senate Bill 199 -- "[n]ot a dime ... goes to the schools." Caldara -- who is president of the free-market think tank the Independence Institute -- later agreed with May, saying, “Ritter [is] putting out a tax increase for the kids when it doesn't go for the kids.”

However, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, the bill's fiscal note, prepared by the nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council Staff, estimated that because of initiatives mandated by the legislation, SB 199 would increase spending on preschool education by $6.7 million in FY 2007-08 and by $19.1 million in FY 2008-09. Additionally, the bill phases in an increase in minimum per pupil funding above levels mandated by the Colorado Constitution at an additional combined cost for FY 2007-08 and FY 2008-09 of $19.6 million.

Furthermore, during the same broadcast, former Republican state treasurer Mark Hillman joined Caldara in asserting that the mill levy freeze is not "[c]onstitutional" because the plan “hasn't gone to the voters.” In fact, as Colorado Media Matters noted in response to Caldara's characterization of Ritter's plan as “fiscal date rape,” the provisions of the freeze apply only to school districts that already have voted to allow the retention of mill levy revenues above limits set in the state constitution.

From the September 13 broadcast of KBDI Channel 12's Independent Thinking:

MAY: If you don't have a crisis that tugs at the heartstrings, you can't have a tax increase. If Referendum C fixed all of these problems, what excuse do they have to go out and raise taxes? They have to fund the things -- or at least this is their deal -- that you can't go out and ask the citizens, “Hey, well, let's pay another tax.” You have to keep those heartstrings issues out there so that you can say, “It's for the children; we have to do the schools; we have to ...” It's just like the property tax increase. The property tax increase -- Governor Ritter's out there on the front steps of the Capitol signing that law, I think illegal law, into place, and he has all those little children out there like it's going to the schools. Not a dime of that goes to the schools; not a dime. In fact, it all comes to the same legislature that took Referendum C and spent it however they want, and it's the same thing --

CALDARA: A terrific point.

MAY: -- that'll happen with the property tax. Same thing.

CALDARA: Senate Bill 1999, which, the Independence Institute -- disclosure -- is suing upon, saying, “This is not constitutional.” Our constitution says when you raise taxes, or if you change public policy so that the state gets more money, you have to do something that -- well, elected officials don't like to do: You have to ask first. You have to ask. The constitution says you bring it to the voters. So for Bill Ritter to sit there with all those kids, saying this is the Colorado's Children's Amendment -- and I've read it; there's no mention of kids anywhere in this property tax increase.

MAY: Nor is it going there. It doesn't go to the schools, and I think they billed it as your little, your local school -- in fact, just the opposite. The money's going to be collected at the local level; they're going to keep the same amount of money they have right now at that school, and all it means is the state -- that [House Speaker] Andrew Romanoff [D-Denver] and what's her name over in the Senate -- I don't pay attention to the Senate, you know, I got my hands full with the House -- but Madame President in the Senate [Joan FitzGerald, D-Coal Creek], they can spend that money on whatever they want to. Anything they want to. In fact, I did a show with Madame President, and she admitted that; there are no restrictions on those funds. But it's certainly not going to the local schools. It's not.

CALDARA: But that's the salesmanship of the left -- to be able to sell Ref. C on a third, a third, a third, on the most emotionally driven issues -- health care, kids, higher ed -- and then to spend it at twice the rate on everything else and spend half the rate on these issues. This is salesmanship, the salesmanship of Ritter putting out a tax increase for the kids when it doesn't go for the kids. Let's talk about this property rate freeze.

HILLMAN: Mm-hmm.

CALDARA: Constitutional?

HILLMAN: No, because the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights plainly says that any tax policy change that results in a net revenue increase has to go to the voters, and this does, and it hasn't gone to the voters.

CALDARA: All right. And I'm a little concerned about people learning about this, because I know for those people listening, it's gonna -- “Oh, Caldara, it's just another sour grapes thing because you lost this election.” But I'm trying to point out something pretty basic. They lied, they're not delivering what they're promising, and in fact, they're setting it up for round two.

In claiming that Ritter's plan “hasn't gone to the voters,” Hillman omitted the fact that a majority of school districts in Colorado already have voted to allow the retention of mill levy revenues above limits set in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). As the Rocky Mountain News reported on March 20 (accessed through the Nexis database), “A 2004 opinion by legislative legal advisers said the rate freeze would be legal since most of the 178 school districts have already voted to exempt themselves from the spending caps contained in Tabor.”