Lambert files ethics complaint against teachers union
DENVER - Rep. Kent Lambert filed an ethics complaint against the Colorado Education Association on Tuesday, accusing the statewide teachers union of deceptive lobbying for Gov. Bill Ritter’s property tax freeze for school funding.
CEA spokeswoman Deborah Fallin called the accusation “a frivolous complaint that was filed and distributed to the media for political purposes.”
The CEA has been lobbying for an amendment to Senate Bill 199 that would freeze property tax rates in 145 school districts and use the $50 million a year that would be raised to help the 11 lowest-funded districts in the state and to bolster the State Education Fund.
Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, argues that two statements made by the CEA and lobbyist Lynn Garramon Mason in e-mails have been false. One is that passage of the plan would take pressure off future cuts to K-12 funding, while the other is that the plan is not a tax increase.
Lambert argues that the passage of Amendment 23 in 2000 prohibits cuts in funding from kindergarten through 12th grade. Fallin said the Legislature can reduce specific areas such as money for textbooks.
On the second, Lambert states that the plan will raise $1.7 billion in new revenue over the next 10 years that otherwise would have been kept by homeowners when property tax rates decreased, making it a tax increase.
Fallin noted that the governor’s attorney and the Office of Legislative Legal Services have issued opinions that it is not a tax increase.
An Executive Committee of legislative leaders will discuss the complaint and could appoint a committee of legislators to investigate further.
