CARROLL: Taking on the big boys

By Vincent Carroll, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 9, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Judge Christina Habas is no pushover when confronting a powerful movement that would casually trample on the Constitution. The Denver District Court judge proved that last year when she ruled that Amendment 41 may violate the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and association.

Never mind that self-appointed good-government groups backed the measure and that a large majority of Coloradans voted for it in an overheated desire to curb the influence of lobbyists. Habas was not one to be intimidated.

This week Habas is presiding over a trial involving an even clearer case of powerful interests attempting to trample on the constitution, although this time it's the state constitution at stake and the powerful interests are - gulp! - the other two branches of government.

Will she have the gumption to declare that the governor and legislature violated the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights when they pushed through a law last year that froze property tax rates rather than let them decline under a longstanding mechanism - the effect of which was to raise property taxes?

TABOR is clear that only voters can hike taxes this way. It specifically bans "a tax policy change directly causing a net tax revenue gain" without a vote of the people.

Those defending the law flourish a clever response. They say that voters in all but four school districts already gave their approval to higher taxes when they agreed that those districts could keep and spend all the revenue they collected - even when the amount exceeded TABOR spending limits.

But of course those voters had no reason to think they were changing tax policy when they voted to "de-Bruce" their districts. They were voting to forgo tax refunds. They had no way of knowing that a governor, years later, would dispatch lawyers to argue that they were actually voting in favor of higher taxes, too.

Statewide this year, the boon to government coffers because of this "tax policy change directly causing a net tax revenue gain" is $117 million. Just wait to see how that figure balloons when the housing market heats up again in a few years.

It's not easy for a judge to rap the knuckles of two branches of government for indifference to the constitutional text. But if she doesn't, no one else is likely to bring them to heel.

Giving polluters a pass

Like a lot of American cities, metro Denver is going to have a tough time meeting the latest standards for ozone pollution. So why do regulators keep giving a pass to some of the biggest polluters on the road?

"Owners of high-polluting cars may get a state waiver from additional repairs if they can prove that they have spent at least $715 trying to fix the problem," the Rocky Mountain News reported this week.

Not that this policy is new. Waivers have been available for years, their purpose being to cushion the impact of the emissions standard on people who own old clunkers. But pollution laws only mean something - and only work - if they're actually enforced.

The government doesn't waive environmental laws affecting gas stations, dry cleaners, printers and a thousand other livelihoods for those who complain that compliance is too expensive. Quite the contrary. The more intractable the violation, the more likely the enterprise will be closed or heavily fined.

When it comes to the most intractable polluters on the road, though, regulators overflow with understanding. There, there, they say. You can't get your car to stop spewing those nasty emissions? Don't worry. We weren't serious about enforcing the law.

Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

• May 9, 2008

  2:43 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Patron_Drinker writes:

  maybe the state should take the money from the illegal tax-gain and use it to get at least some of the high-pollutin' cars off the road. I'm sure there are people out there who drive old clunkers because they have no alternative. These people could apply for grants to purchase, insure and register vehicles that can pass emissions. Others could apply for grants to get their rolling smog factories repaired so that they will pass emissions.

• May 9, 2008

  6:34 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  roger44 writes:

  I like my old Chevy, no payments, insurance a third of what a newer one would require. Don't drive near the miles I did a year ago because of the price of fuel, so that helps. Curious how they give the big polluters a pass, coal fired power plants, oil companies. Big business runs this country, we don't.

• May 9, 2008

  6:38 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ColoradoDave writes:

  Let's just de-Bruce Colorado. First we repeal TABOR. Second, we ride Doug out on a rail.

• May 9, 2008

  7:30 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

  One man's clunker is another man's transportation. Instead of housing the homeless let us buy them new cars and give them a map to somewhere else? The number of "clunkers" on the road is insignificant in relation to the amount of air pollution. Bad bridge. Pick a topic we can sink your teeth into, like wasteful government spending? Oh, that's right, you approve of all government spending.

• May 9, 2008

  6:09 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  dblgood writes:

  Mike. Let's give em the cars that fail the emission test, and enough gas money to get em to California.

• May 11, 2008

  12:07 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  p_myers661 writes:

  There are many ways to pass the emissions test and I have never found a non-smoking car I couldn't make pass after I read the failure report. That said, the new "drive by" testing stations will make such tactics as I used impossible as they are reading cars as they actually are when going down the road. Emissions tests used to be fifteen dollars and another twenty five if the vehicle failed. The state had to let go of the failure payments and they raised the amount an owner was required to spend to get a "pass."
  I can name you a dozen mechanics who play the "false invoice" game at fifty dollars a pop. They also will tell a driver who needs massive repairs to go get a failure so they can just pay what they were going to pay anyway. Others drive old cars that only require one emission test and then have classic plates that need no emission tests. Of course this means they will have to pay for five years of plates all at once. If you doubt this check out the prices of cars that are twenty two years old versus the same make and model at twenty five.
  My husband has almost finished fixing his car. With a bit of paint, next year's income tax refund, it will look wonderful and be a true classic. We will then be restricted to a thousand miles a year on the vehicle subject to inspection at any time. Some merely get a classic plate to avoid the emissions expense. Sometimes the more politicians and nannies meddle, the more creative people get. RV owners already register their vehicles in Oregon to avoid Colorado taxes. Others will buy land in Wyoming and state a principal residence there. Emissions laws have a great intent. Perhaps some changes need to be made, like California's "any smoking vehicle gets a ticket and a timeline for repairs to be completed." I'm most certainly not a greenie, but clean cars made a difference before. If they make the common sense change that, heavens!, politicians suggested and eliminate the testing stations in favor of the highway testing centers, the general public would be checked in the real world which makes cheating impossible and tests all vehicles no matter what kind of plates they wear.

• May 11, 2008

  9:54 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  jacka writes:

  So, it is a tax increase. Sure felt like one too.

• May 12, 2008

  8:17 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Lowtaxequalsfreedom writes:

  Tabor limits the State and moves nearly all taxing choices to the local district and municipalities. Ritter could not handle the fact that Tabor makes him and his State cronies less important and less powerful.

• May 12, 2008

  11:02 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Teaparty writes:

  Why are so many posters here so eager to simply discard the state Constitution and tell everyone else what cars they should drive? The Constitution is there to protect citizen's rights and limit the powers of government. The Taxpayers Bill Of Rights is a part of our Constitution, and it is intended to protect the citizens of Colorado from spendthrift politicians who've never seen a tax they didn't like. Are we not taxed enough already? Do you have any idea how much money we're already paying to all our governments each year? Look at your property tax bill -- how many taxing authorities already have their hands in your pocket? And they're all clamoring for more! And some people here seem eager to give it to them -- why? Especially in this current economic environment where we watch the equity in our homes evaporate, many businesses are failing as gasoline prices are escalating, along with all the transportation services that rely on gas to deliver those goods. This is insane, and so are those who advocate increasing taxes.

  Colorado Attorney General, John Suthers, rendered a 12-page opinion on Governor Ritter's proposal to freeze the k-12 mill levy, which finds Ritter's mill levy freeze completely unconstitutional. (How many of you bothered to read it?) Ritter and his corrupt Congressional cabal proceeded with their plans despite the Attorney General's findings, and now Ritter is in court wasting still more taxpayer's money defending an unconstitutional act.

  The Governor should be fired, along with most of the CO Legislators responsible for attempting to evade the Constitution they took an oath to uphold and defend!

  To protect citizens from further government incursion we taxpayers with a clue need to reassert TABOR in its full force, and the rest of you need to take a class in civics and read the Constitution.

• May 12, 2008

  12:31 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Lowtaxequalsfreedom writes:

  “Do you have any idea how much money we're already paying to all our governments each year?”

  50% of your wage. Payroll, Fed income, State Income, Fuel tax, Sales tax, Communications tax, Property tax, utilities tax and all of the other taxes.

  We are at least 50% communistic and that is assuming 100% is total. I believe that Communism is running hard at about 85% of government controlled capitol.

  4 hours of every 8 hour shift. 26 weeks of every year.

  Free market my arce. More like Statism.

• May 15, 2008

  9:12 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  fatheromalley writes:

  "Like a lot of American cities, metro Denver is going to have a tough time meeting the latest standards for ozone pollution." (Go out and buy those "flex fuel" cars everyone! Help starve the poor too.. wow, what a deal! Increase Ozone by using ethanol and starve millions...)

  So why do regulators keep giving a pass to some of the biggest polluters on the road?

  "Owners of high-polluting cars may get a state waiver from additional repairs if they can prove that they have spent at least $715 trying to fix the problem," the Rocky Mountain News reported this week.

  Not that this policy is new. Waivers have been available for years, their purpose being to cushion the impact of the emissions standard on people who own old clunkers. "

  (This is exactly why we need our cars powered by Water.. H2O.. you know two parts HYDROGEN.. Electric energy from wind farms and solar farms to convert water to Hydrogen instead of "storing" it to offset the CO2 "pollution" of our power companies?

  Hydrogen power IS backward compatible to "Old Clunkers"..

  www.fatheromalley.com Commercial Hydrogen, back-yard hydrogen, hydrogen for the home, the car, the truck, the lawn mower, jet aircraft, buses.. and we don't have to starve people in underdevloped countries to boot and no increase in Ozone, in fact it decreases Ozone.. the answers are here, you, dear readers aren't pushing for them.. so we languish in mediocrity awaiting the next foot to drop?

  But pollution laws only mean something - and only work - if they're actually enforced.

  You mean like our aiding and abetting illegal alien laws, our polygamy laws, our....our drug dealer laws.. (agricultural trespass anyone?)

  www.fatheromalley.com it's there too..

• May 16, 2008

  2:34 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Teaparty writes:

  Hydrogen is so passe' -- so last millennium... I'm waiting for a dilithium modulated deuterium powered matter/antimatter reactor. Either that or ion power. Beam me up, please!

• May 16, 2008

  3:06 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Teaparty writes:

  Hydrogen is so passe' -- so last millennium... I'm waiting for a dilithium modulated deuterium-powered matter/antimatter reactor. Either that or ion power. Beam me up, please!

• May 19, 2008

  12:03 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  fatheromalley writes:

  Teaparty.. the Middle East is hoping you and America are willing to wait for diithium modulated deuterium powered matter-anti matter reactor... which might as well be a Hydrogen fuel cell or "electric car" to older vehicles.. neat little gizmos, windmill farms to store electricity, solar panel farms to store electricity, are all 'TRANSISTIONAL' technologies massively subsidized by you without your choice.. read money for the status quo....

  Don't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? It makes the Middle East that way too.. Allah will get his tithes from the dirty Americans... makes'em grin too I'll bet

  www.fatheromalley.com

  may god bless,
  father omalley

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