In a September 14 article about an estimate of increased revenue from a property tax rate freeze proposed by Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and enacted as part of Senate Bill 199, The Denver Post uncritically reported the remarks of Independence Institute president Jon Caldara, who the newspaper stated “is gathering evidence for a lawsuit against the state over the freeze.” The article quoted Caldara as saying, “The insult is that the legislature and the governor covered up the constitution and passed a tax increase without asking the voters ... Our constitution is clear: You always ask first.” Similarly, the Associated Press on September 16 reported the criticisms of Republican state Reps. Bob Witwer (Golden) and Cory Gardner (Yuma), who called the freeze “a runaway tax hike” and demanded that voters “be given a chance to overturn Gov. Bill Ritter's property-tax freeze.”

Neither article, however, reported that voters in a majority of school districts in Colorado already had decided to allow the retention of mill levy revenues above limits set in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). 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 districts that have voted to permit such revenues above the limits set in “section 20 of article X of the state constitution.”

Both articles repeated the conservative talking points that the mill levy freeze ignored the will of voters and that it would amount to a tax increase.

The AP article was posted September 16 on the Aurora Sentinel Online and KMGH 7News websites, and versions of it appeared in the September 17 editions of The Pueblo Chieftain and the Boulder Daily Camera.

From Jennifer Brown's article “Sparks flying on tax freeze” in the September 14 edition of The Denver Post:

Gov. Bill Ritter's property-tax freeze for schools is expected to bring in $114 million across Colorado next year -- well over the $48 million calculated when the legislature approved the proposal.

Republicans who fought against the school-funding plan last spring were crying outrage at the $66 million difference Thursday, while the governor cautioned that the estimate from the nonpartisan Legislative Council is still preliminary.

“These forecasts change; they can change dramatically in three or six months,” Ritter said. “We're not deciding now that we are going to do anything with that until we see what those numbers are.”

[...]

Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute think tank, is gathering evidence for a lawsuit against the state over the freeze.

He said the latest calculation is reminiscent of underestimates on Referendum C revenues and “only adds insult to injury.”

State economists predict Referendum C, which suspends the state's constitutional revenue limits for five years, will bring in $5.9 billion, which is $2.2 billion more than estimated when it was approved in 2005.

“The insult is that the legislature and the governor covered up the constitution and passed a tax increase without asking the voters,” Caldara said. “Our constitution is clear: You always ask first.”

In uncritically reporting Caldara's criticisms, the Post omitted pertinent information it had reported two days earlier in another Brown article: “In 175 school districts, voters have approved allowing officials to keep tax revenues over the amount allowed by the state constitution.” The September 12 Post article further reported:

But state law still was forcing property-tax rates lower and forcing state taxpayers to pick up more of the tab for some wealthier school districts.

The governor's office said it pushed for the property-tax freeze, approved by the legislature, because the state share of school funding was inequitable in some districts, and that was draining money from other state programs.

Reporting on the revised revenue estimate, the AP noted that Witwer and Gardner “said that if the Democrat-controlled Legislature refuses to send the measure to the ballot, the two legislators say it should be capped at $48 [million]. They said that is how much the Legislature expected to earn from the measure.” While the AP reported that the “latest estimate was prepared by the nonpartisan [Colorado] Legislative [Staff] Council at Gardner's request,” the article failed to point out that under the measure, property taxes will decrease in 49 school districts in Colorado, including those in Gardner's House District 63.

From the September 16 Associated Press article:

Voters should be given a chance to overturn Gov. Bill Ritter's property-tax freeze, two Republican lawmakers said.

They said it will generate $114 million next year.

Reps. Bob Witwer, of Golden, and Cory Gardner, of Yuma, said that if the Democrat-controlled Legislature refuses to send the measure to the ballot, the two legislators say it should be capped at $48. They said that is how much the Legislature expected to earn from the measure.

Witwer and Gardner said they were outraged by a legislative memo last week that estimated revenues from the mill-levy freeze at $66 million more than an April calculation.

“We've got a runaway tax hike. It's really critical that we cap them; otherwise, taxpayers are going to have a very rude awakening,” Witwer said Friday.

Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said the revenue projections are only estimates. He said it was “wholly inconsistent” that two lawmakers who voted against the freeze now are now “weighing in on a plan of what to do.”

The latest estimate was prepared by the nonpartisan Legislative Council at Gardner's request.