As the Colorado Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee meets this week to “review agency budgets in advance of the 2010 General Assembly” (and you thought your wallet and property were only at risk while the legislature is IN session), last year’s Colorado Supreme Court ruling upholding the blatantly unconstitutional “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” is back in the news:

In 2010, the JBC will consider both budget and tax policy — the latter a result of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision last year in Mesa County Bd. of County Comm’rs v. State of Colorado.
Because of the opinion, which redefined the phrase “tax policy change,” state lawmakers are now free to increase state revenue by more than $2 billion by repealing tax credits and exemptions most had considered untouchable under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR. It’s expected that the JBC will play a leading role in which corporate- and sales-tax exemptions to keep and which to kill. (Related reading: A Chink In TABOR’s Armor: Mill-Levy Ruling Reverberates Widely)

As Clear The Bench Colorado has noted for months, the Colorado Supreme Court ruling did more than just lock in an upwards ratchet on property taxes with the “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” ruling - it also opened the door to millions - even billions - in new taxes on the hard-pressed citizens of Colorado by eliminating long-standing constitutional protections for a long list of existing tax credits and exemptions, allowing the legislature to impose what are in effect substantial new taxes without a vote of the people, as has been required under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR.

Just for “fun” - try the “New Tax Lottery” - brought to you courtesy of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling upholding “Backdoor Bill” Ritter’s “Mill Levy Tax Freeze”. (View the list, then take the survey).

Outraged?  You should be - and the Mullarkey Majority on the Colorado Supreme Court is primarily to blame, for blatantly disregarding constitutional limits and undermining the rule of law.

Fortunately, in the coming election year (November 2010), We The People have a constitutional remedy already in place: exercise YOUR right to vote “NO” on retaining the four unjust justices of the Mullarkey Majority (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey herself).  They need YOUR approval to continue taking away your constitutional rights: your right to vote on tax increases, your right to defend your homes and business from seizure by rapacious governments, and your right to enjoy rights and benefits of the rule of law, not rule by activist, agenda-driven “justices.” DON’T GIVE IT TO THEM!  Support Clear The Bench Colorado with your comments (Sound Off!), your contributions, and your “NO” vote as these unjust justices stand for retention in Nov. 2010!

In today’s (Wednesday) Denver Post, editor/columnist Vincent Carroll, while taking Scott McInnis to task for “budgetary vagueness” in the ‘Platform for Prosperity’ and other campaign statements to date, lauded the platform (aka ‘Contract for Colorado’) for adherence to constitutional principles:

The best thing about Scott McInnis’ new “Platform for Prosperity” is that it shows a respect for voters and the Colorado Constitution. That alone is cause for celebration, given the serial disregard for voters’ rights and constitutional language during the past three years.

The voters of Colorado certainly have a right to expect that their officials - elected OR appointed - demonstrate respect for their rights and for the Colorado Constitution.  As Carroll points out, those rights - such as the right to vote on tax increases, guaranteed under TABOR - have been increasingly undermined (if not downright ignored) by all branches of Colorado government over the last several years.

In other words, no more end runs around the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights to hike property taxes by the trick of freezing mill levies rather than allowing them to decline. No more plans to raise $130 million by lifting long-established tax exemptions while ignoring the TABOR requirement that any “tax policy change directly causing a net tax revenue gain” must go to a popular vote.

And no more repealing spending caps for the general fund without asking voters for permission, as TABOR demands.

What Carroll does not mention - at least, not explicitly - is the fact that these “end runs around the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights” were ONLY able to occur with the active involvement of the ruling majority on the Colorado Supreme Court.  Lower courts had held - properly - that the “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” was clearly unconstitutional.   That would have stopped the “end run” around TABOR in its tracks - but for the complicit (and politically motivated) action of the Mullarkey Majority to overturn the lower court, in clear and blatant disregard of the Colorado Constitution.

The Mullarkey Court also added insult to injury by inventing a rationale to eliminate constitutional protections for “long-established tax exemptions” in that same case - an insult all the more egregious because those tax exemptions were not even at issue in the case, and were only added to the ruling - a major breach of judicial practice by an appellate court - because an activist majority wanted to push its own agenda in further undermining TABOR.

The repeal of the Arveschoug-Bird 6% limit on growth of government spending - previously held to have been incorporated under TABOR - by the legislature with Senate Bill 228 was also “aided and abetted” by the Mullarkey Court.  Since the unconstitutional nature of the repeal (and thus SB228) was clearly established by years of legal commentary and precedent, in a rational universe, the bill would have been challenged and overturned.  However, a legislature emboldened by the Mullarkey Majority’s clear bias against TABOR - no mere statute, but part of the Colorado Constitution - felt no qualms in ramming through a clearly unconstitutional bill, and the opposition (in the legislature and otherwise) saw no prospects for a successful legal challenge.  The fix was in - it was clear that the ruling majority on the Colorado Supreme Court would NOT uphold the Constitution, and the rule of law, despite their sworn duty to do so.  Like the dog that did not bark in the night, the “case that never was” sealed the doom of this legal limit on the growth of general fund spending.

Carroll continues:

If TABOR can be defied any time an attorney offers an inventive rationale, what’s to prevent public officials from ignoring other inconvenient amendments?

What, indeed?  If the Colorado Constitution means whatever a majority on the Colorado Supreme Court says it means on any given day, why bother to have a Constitution at all?  For that matter, why bother to have any rules; just let decisions be made by rulers.  Oh wait; 200-odd years ago, we had just that; but we called them “Kings” and “Queens,” instead of “Supreme Court Justices.”

Our founding fathers established something unique, something very special, when they replaced the divine right of kings - rule unchallenged by constitutional constraints - with constitutional, limited government: the rule of law, not the arbitrary and capricious rule of men (or in this case, women).  “What kind of government have you given us?”, Benjamin Franklin was famously asked on exiting the Constitutional Convention.  “A Republic, if you can keep it”, he replied.

We The People must again stand up in defense of our Constitution - in defense of our rights as citizens - in order to keep our Republic.  We must throw off those who would re-institute a rule of our “betters” - be they termed Kings, Queens, or Supreme Court “Justices.”

Freedom isn’t Free - Defend YOUR Constitution, and exercise YOUR right to vote “NO” on retaining the four unjust justices of the Mullarkey Majority (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey).  They need YOUR approval to continue taking away your constitutional rights: your right to vote on tax increases, your right to defend your homes and business from seizure by rapacious governments, and your right to enjoy the benefits of the rule of law, not rule by activist, agenda-driven “justices.” DON’T GIVE IT TO THEM!  Support Clear The Bench Colorado with your comments (Sound Off!), your contributions, and your “NO” vote on these unjust justices in Nov. 2010!

Today’s announcement (with much fanfare and commentary) of a ‘Contract for Colorado’ emphasizing key principles, positions, or policy prescriptions for conservative candidates for Colorado statewide office picked up on several key themes long espoused by Clear The Bench Colorado.  (Although Clear The Bench Colorado is not affiliated with any political party nor is it partisan in orientation, it does stand for certain key principles - most prominently, holding the judicial branch accountable to the Constitution and the rule of law).

The most obvious correlation or thematic endorsement comes in at #17 (of 20 items):

17. I will appoint conservative judges who respect the Constitution and try to interpret laws, not make them.

Irrespective of whether one characterizes good judges as conservative, constructionist, or just plain constitutionalist, Clear The Bench Colorado exists to hold our Colorado Supreme Court justices accountable to the people, to the Colorado Constitution, and to the rule of law.

Other provisions of the ‘Contract for Colorado’ (also termed the “Platform for Prosperity”) that align with positions taken by Clear The Bench Colorado include:

1. I will veto any bill and oppose any referendum or initiative that seeks to increase state taxes, or temporarily or permanently relax any spending cap or TABOR revenue limit.

This common-sense stance would hardly be worth mentioning, much less given pride of place (the #1 slot) were it not for the Mullarkey Majority’s relentless efforts to undermine or outright eliminate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) in a series of increasingly aggressive and unconstitutional rulings.   It is clear that the people of Colorado strongly support this provision of the state Constitution, and defend it against judicial attempts to “interpret” it out of existence in pursuit of a personal, partisan agenda.

4. I will veto, or refer to the public for a vote, any significant fee increase.

Again, this issue would not exist except for last year’s ”November Surprise” unconstitutional ruling by the Mullarkey Majority on the Colorado Supreme Court that effectively eliminated the revenue restrictions on funds collected by “fees” as opposed to taxes - while maintaining the legal loophole allowing “fees” to be imposed without a vote of the people, as is constitutionally required for new or increased taxes.  Thanks primarily to the efforts of Clear The Bench Colorado, public awareness of this issue - and justified anger with the legislators, executive, and unjust justices of the judicial branch who perpetrated this end-run around the Colorado Constitution - is already high, and growing.

6. I will work to reverse the massive increase in property taxes brought about by Governor Ritter’s mill levy freeze, and the car tax increase imposed by SB 09-108.

Clear The Bench Colorado was formed specifically in reaction to the Mullarkey Court’s ruling upholding the clearly unconstitutional so-called “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” ruling (which not only effectively increased property taxes, but also eliminated constitutional protections for a whole list of tax credits & exemptions - in other words, taxes you don’t (or at least didn’t, before the ruling) have to pay).  Clear The Bench Colorado was also among the first and strongest critics of the Colorado Car Tax and other taxes posing as a “fee” increase enabled by the Mullarkey Majority’s November Surprise ruling.

20. I will support efforts to reinstate a meaningful limit on state spending growth

The ‘Contract for Colorado’ final item would also be a moot point but for the Colorado Supreme Court “case that never was” - a legal challenge to the Colorado Legislature’s unconstitutional repeal of the Arveschoug-Bird 6% limit on the growth of state spending in the 2009 legislative session (SB 228) did NOT emerge because it was apparent that “the fix was in” following the Colorado Supreme Court’s blatantly unconstitutional ruling in the “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” case.  The Mullarkey Majority thus “aided and abetted”  the commission of a crime against the Colorado Constitution without even having to lift the proverbial pen to paper - and has clearly emboldened a legislature (and governor) in pursuit of every last dime they can squeeze out of Colorado citizens to spend according to their priorities.

A full 25% (5 out of 20) of the items on the Contract for Colorado/Platform for Prosperity list are derived from issues raised by Clear The Bench Colorado in opposition to an out-of-control, unaccountable Colorado Supreme Court - lending weight to Director Matt Arnold’s statement that casting “NO” votes on retaining the four unjust justices of the Mullarkey Court (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey) in office may be the most important votes cast by Colorado citizens in November 2010.

No contract or platform is required to inform yourself on how - and why -  you can and should exercise YOUR right to vote “NO” on retaining the four unjust justices of the Mullarkey Majority (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey) who need YOUR approval to continue taking away your constitutional rights: your right to vote on tax increases, your right to defend your homes and business from seizure by rapacious governments, and your right to enjoy the benefits of the rule of law, not rule by a partisan majority of activist, agenda-driven Colorado Supreme Court “justices.”  Support Clear The Bench Colorado with your comments (Sound Off!), your contributions, and your “NO” vote on retaining these unjust justices in 2010!