During his October 16 Newsradio 850 KOA show, Mike Rosen failed to correct his guest, founder and managing editor Brad Jones of the “news” website Face the State, when Jones falsely asserted that the Better Denver campaign -- which supports Denver's November ballot measures 1A through 1I -- “say[s] it's [1A] just $27 million more to the city, but they don't mention that that's an annual rate.” Jones, who accused the Better Denver campaign of being “disingenuous” on 1A, further stated: “I encourage people to go to the Better Denver website at BetterDenver.org and read what exactly they're saying this is going to do.” In fact, Better Denver's website states that “1A will increase Denver's mill levy by 2.5 mills to raise $27 million each year.”

From the Better Denver website:

1A will increase Denver's mill levy by 2.5 mills to raise $27 million each year for a dedicated maintenance fund for preventive maintenance of our streets, parks, and city buildings. The median homeowner ($255,000 home) will pay an additional $51 per year -- less than a dollar a week. Even with this modest increase, Denver will still have the lowest property tax rate of any major city in the metropolitan area. [emphasis added]

Furthermore, the Better Denver website features the text of question 1A as it will appear on the November 6 ballot. The ballot language also explicitly states that taxes in the City and County of Denver will be “increased by $27.5 million annually beginning in 2008” as a result of the measure's passage:

Referred Question 1A

Capital Maintenance Mill Levy

Shall City And County of Denver taxes be increased by $27.5 million annually beginning in 2008, and by whatever additional amounts are raised annually thereafter from an ad valorem tax assessed at the rate of 2.5 mills on all taxable property within the city and county for the sole purpose of funding the restoration, rehabilitation, refurbishment, or replacement of the city's capital infrastructure, including parks, public works, buildings, and other public facilities and improvements, and shall the revenues from these increased taxes be collected and spent in each fiscal year by the City and County of Denver without regard to any expenditure, revenue-raising, or other limitation contained within Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution or any other law?

As Colorado Media Matters has documented (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), Face the State frequently publishes misleading headlines on its aggregated news articles and makes other distortions to advance conservative viewpoints and denigrate liberal positions and political figures.

From the October 16 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show:

JONES: Better Denver is a very well-funded effort. We haven't seen the last of the campaign finance reports that show us exactly how well funded, but best estimates upwards of a million dollars being spent on convincing you to give the government more money. And who's spending all this money on this campaign? It's primarily those who are going to receive it, those who are going to receive contracts as a result of the public contracting and construction on this, and the bond companies that are financing some of these bonds. The gray book that comes in the mail is deathly boring, it's not a very fun read, but I would encourage people to go in and look. The numbers are very clearly put there. And we'll talk about some of the numbers today, but on the bonds especially it costs more to finance the repayment of some of these bonds than the principal amount that we're actually financing. So you have to ask the question, who's making the money here and what vested interest do they have in passage?

[...]

ROSEN: All right, let's talk about 1A. Let's start at the top and go through them. What's 1A?

JONES: 1A is a mill levy increase, and mill levy is just a fancy government bureaucracy word for tax rate on your property tax. And 2.5 mills adds to the mill levy and -- the Better Denver campaign is, I think, really being disingenuous in how they're selling this one in particular. They say it's just $27 million more to the city, but they don't mention that that's an annual rate. And also, if you read the language in the actual ballot question, this is two elections, this is two ballot questions in one. This is a property tax increase, but it's also a vote to get the city out from under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. So if property valuations go up -- which they're doing this year -- this is going to cost way more than $27 million. There's no cap to what they can bring in.

ROSEN: And what's the money devoted to on this one? This is -- it says it's for capital maintenance and capital improvements.

JONES: Correct. This would go into what they're calling a dedicated fund for capital maintenance and improvements over the long term for streets, parks, and other capital expenses that they say. One of my favorite things to say about this plan is that there's lots of things -- and I encourage people to go to the Better Denver website at BetterDenver.org and read what exactly they're saying this is going to do. In many cases they have very specific plans for where this money is going. But, Mike, there's not a single snow plow earmarked in any of this money. Now, the mayor will probably come back and say I'm, saying I'm being nitpicking and that he might pay for it out of this property tax increase money. But all of this money that's specifically earmarked for things like the concert hall or new fire stations or parks, but there's no money dedicated to the things that have made Denver residents so angry at the government in the last year, which is their failure to clean the streets in the winter.