Colorado: Caldara

A Democratic-backed law that kept property taxes from decreasing survived its final legal challenge Monday as the Colorado Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that the 2007 measure violated the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights in the state constitution.

In a 6-1 ruling, the court reversed a May 2008 district court ruling that said the law, which kept local mill-levy rates from going down and is expected to raise more than $100 million annually, violated TABOR's requirement that voters approve any additional tax increases.

Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, who was a defendant in the suit, said the ruling would avert even deeper cuts in the state budget to education programs like full-day kindergarten and school counseling.

Colorado's Taxpayers Bill of Rights, known as TABOR, requires voter approval for any net increase in government revenue, contains a section that reads, “other limits on district revenue, spending, and debt may be weakened only by future voter approval.” Republicans are saying this includes the 6 percent limit, also know as Averschoug-Bird, which means that voter approval would be required for its elimination. Democrats, meanwhile, argue that the 6 percent limit is not actually a limit at all. SB 228's sponsor, Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, has taken to calling the 6 percent limit an “arbitrary allocation formula.”

Barry Poulson, one of the original collaborators on TABOR and a senior fellow at the Independence Institute, agrees with Republicans.

One hundred enthusiastic Atlas Shrugged fans braved chilly temperatures on the east steps of the Colorado capitol Friday as part of a nationwide “tea party” protest to rail against the federal stimulus package and the government, in general.

Beyond the typical conservative-Libertarian rhetoric was some practical advice on how to “shrug these parasites off our backs” like opening a black market in your own garage.

(Photo/Wendy Norris)

Jenny Hatch of Louisville kicked off the event with a reading from the fictional anti-government manifesto Atlas Shrugged by libertarian darling Ayn Rand.

(Photo/Wendy Norris)

Hatch implored the crowd of mainly middle-aged white folk to shrug off medical care, run a subsistence farm with a garden, cows and chickens, and create a black market barter-and-trade system with like-minded neighbors.

Tuesday's anti-stimulus rally at the Capitol drew hundreds of people protesting President Obama's signing of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill. Among the protesters was an unknown man identified only by his "swastika sign" that likened Obama to Adolf Hitler.

Michael Huttner of ProgressNow, a left-wing advocacy group, attended the rally and in typical Huttner fashion, sent out a post-rally release where he decried the use of swastikas a Nazi analogies, and also demanded an apology from rally organizers, including Independence Institute President Jon Caldara.

But according to conservative muckraker Ari Armstrong, supporters posting on ProgressNow's Web site have regularly used Nazi analogies over the years, and ProgressNow has yet to condemn, edit, or apologize for this sort of language.