RE1J joins anti TABOR lawsuit as plaintiff

Hopes to overturn amendment

by Olivia Lueckemeyer

The RE1J school board has voted to enter the Kerr et al. v. Hickenlooper lawsuit as a plaintiff, cementing its position against the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), which it argues has harmed Colorado public schools by stifling K-12 funding.

TABOR, an amendment to the Colorado Constitution passed in 1992, lessens public school funding by placing a cap on property tax revenue collected by the state. Because of the strict limits imposed by TABOR, money that would otherwise be spent funding per-pupil increases is now reimbursed to the taxpayer—rendering Colorado 47th in the nation for K-12 funding.

“This is an issue that every time we visit the legislature, it’s what they talk to us about and it’s what we talk to them about,” Dr. Dale Orth, treasurer of the RE1J school board, said. “These limits are making it difficult to impossible to the do the job we and they are elected to do.”

Before TABOR, school districts had the authority to raise property taxes—the primary local source of revenue for public schools—without a vote from the people. With that ability stripped, school districts scrambled to make ends meet. For RE1J, in 2014 its constituents voted in favor of a mill levy override to bring the district back to base level funding. Other Colorado school districts have not been so lucky.

“This is not a problem that a one-time mill levy fix is going to be able to take care of,” district superintendent Doug Tredway said. “Even at base level funding we are still way below the national [funding] average.

“TABOR is going to keep tightening the state budget,” he continued. “The real fact is that TABOR has a compounding effect, and it is going to get tighter and tighter until the state really can’t function the way it’s supposed to.”

RE1J is one of several Colorado school districts that have been asked to join the lawsuit as a plaintiff. Other districts include Denver County 1, Boulder Valley RE 2, Pueblo City 60 and Poudre R-1.

“I think this is a good way to represent what our valley represents,” Courtney Fullmer, vice president of the board, said in support of joining the lawsuit. “This helps us to be clear about our struggles. This has been a conversation since I’ve been on the school board, and it’s not just our school board—it’s school boards around the state. I advocate that we vote on this.”

Originally filed in federal court in May 2011, Kerr et al. v. Hickenlooper sought to sue the state to overturn TABOR. After being sent all the way to the Supreme Court, the case was eventually sent back to District Court with instructions to add additional plaintiffs—so RE1J has been asked to join on the basis that it has been injured by TABOR and its effect on the operations of state and local governments.

Board president Marilyn Krill agreed that joining the lawsuit as a plaintiff was “the right direction to go in.” After public input at a meeting on September 12, the board unanimously voted to approve the resolution.

Plaintiffs in this case will be represented pro-bono. The next step is for the board to sign an engagement letter with the law firms. From there the lawyers will develop a strategy and move forward.