Colorado: Supreme Court

Avoiding further chaos for an already-strapped state budget, the Colorado Supreme Court today ruled that a 2007 law that allowed local property taxes to grow did not violate the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

The seven-member court overturned a May 2008 district court ruling that said the law, which kept local mill-levy rates from going down, violated TABOR's requirement that voters approve any additional tax increases.

The court flatly rejected that argument advanced by opponents of the law, which included the Mesa County Board of Commissioners. The court said that was because voters in 174 of the state's 178 school districts had voted to cast off limitations under TABOR, allowing them to keep property tax revenues.

Nearly two years after receiving notice from the Regional Transportation District that their property would be seized for light rail expansion, Kim Snyder and Galen Foster of Pro-Tint Windows in Lakewood are moving on.

According to the couple's attorney, Bob Hoban, the couple received $595,000 for their property plus an undisclosed sum for relocation further away from the proposed west corridor FasTracks line.

Snyder and Foster's property is located just south of Colfax on Wadsworth. It not only houses their small business, but also their home of the last 25 years. Snyder and Foster have devoted much of the last two years to a vocal fight to save their land, but

State Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs. (Photo/Bob Spencer, The Colorado Independent)

On Wednesday, the Colorado Senate Finance Committee approved Senate Bill 228 — legislation that seeks to provide greater flexibility to lawmakers in deciding where to spend the state’s shrinking revenues.

State Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs. (Photo/Bob Spencer, The Colorado Independent)

Sponsored by Democratic Sen. John Morse, the bill would eliminate the so-called Arveschoug-Bird provision, which restricts the state’s General Fund to 6 percent growth per year and allocates any surplus specifically to transportation and construction projects. Morse’s bill and the problem it seeks to address are tongue-twisting and arcane, yet the small corner room of the Capitol where the hearing took place was filled with laptop jockeys, community leaders, a webcast crew and a buzz that hung in the air when it became clear that SB228 was going to clear its first public hurdle.

It’s been an awesome week. A week where Lakewood began requiring that all paid escorts be registered and injected with tracking micro-chips. Or maybe that was cats. It's easy to get confused with so many good ideas coming out of our local and state governments these days.

It’s also a week in which we’ve learned that Colorado Democrats are fighting hard to change their image of being the party that is soft on crime. And they’re doing it by:

Trying to shut down a prison in Rifle.

Working to eliminate the death penalty.

Refusing to join the rest of the country in passing Jessica’s Law.

"I applaud the Colorado legislature for being one of only eight states to not pass tough legislation against child molesters," said one opponent of the law, singer Michael Jackson.