In an otherwise excellent article in today’s Denver Post Perspective section, columnist Vince Carroll, decrying legislators and others who play the “Blaming TABOR” game as an excuse for failing to balance the state budget, makes one glaring error.  He correctly calls Colorado Springs Democrat John Morse to account for getting it wrong on possible approaches to balancing the budget:

I had called Morse because he is an outspoken member of a committee of lawmakers and other leaders charged with finding long-term fixes for the beleaguered state budget. And it didn’t take him long to home in on the nub of the problem as he sees it. Every other state, Morse says, has four choices when confronting a budget shortfall: raise taxes, borrow, hike fees or “cut valued public services.” Colorado, thanks to its constitution, has only “two of those options.”

What Morse means is that the Colorado legislature has only two options (or 2 1/2, if you properly classify certificates of participation as borrowing). The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights does in fact allow voters to raise taxes - that irksome direct democracy business, of course. But to Morse, “that is the most offensive part of TABOR.”

Offensive or not - and I love that particular check on government ambition - voting on taxes isn’t going away. Most Coloradans still support this grassroots power, as Morse concedes, and even our Supreme Court wouldn’t dare invent a rationale to circumvent it.

 ”Voting on taxes” - a right reserved to the people of Colorado by Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution (TABOR) - is not only popular, IT’S THE LAW.

Carroll’s assertion that “even our Supreme Court wouldn’t dare invent a rationale to circumvent it” is incorrect - as he himself has pointed out on numerous occasions, including later in the article.  After all, what else was the “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” but a “tax policy change directly causing a net tax revenue gain to any district“) as pointed out by Justice Allison Eid in her scathing (and correct) dissent to the majority ruling?

Our current Colorado Supreme Court Majority, let by Chief “Justice” Mary Mullarkey, DOES indeed “Dare to be Stupid” - er, “dare” to trash TABOR, “dare” to circumvent the Colorado Constitution, and “dares” to violate YOUR rights.  They have in fact been growing MORE “daring” with each opportunity…

However, these unelected judges are NOT unaccountable.  Four of the worst offenders - Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mullarkey herself - must face the voters and stand for retention in 2010.  They NEED YOUR APPROVAL to be able to continue taking away your rights - DON’T GIVE IT TO THEM!

Vote “NO” on these “unjust justices” in 2010!

Tags: Alex Martinez, Colorado Constitution, Colorado Judges, Colorado Mill Levy, Colorado Supreme Court, judicial accountability, judicial evaluation, judicial retention, judicial usurpation, Know Your Judge, Mary Mullarkey, Michael Bender, Mill Levy Tax Colorado, Mill Levy Tax Freeze, Mullarkey Court, Nancy Rice, TABOR, unjust justices