By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
Members of the Colorado Legislature are set to convene in a 74th Special Session on Monday at the Colorado State Capitol Building to settle the issue of property tax.
Gov. Jared Polis called the session to prevent two propositions from advancing to the ballot and for a voter decision on the matter come November. One of those measures, Prop. 108, this week qualified for the ballot, Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced.
And that is where the Colorado Republican Party believes the matter should stay — in the hands of the voters.
The party will sue to prevent legislators and the parties which filed the measures — Advance Colorado — from deals to undo the process and negotiate a different property tax outcome, Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams told the Rocky Mountain Voice’s Heidi Ganahl on Friday morning.
The motion for an injunction to the special session had not yet been filed at that time Friday, Ganahl reported from her discussion with Williams, but that the aim was to protect the will of the people, those nearly 200,000 who signed the petition to get Prop. 108 to the ballot, only to be undone by lawmakers in both parties and Gov. Polis.
At issue for the courts could be whether Michael Fields and Advance Colorado can withdraw a measure from the ballot, once it has reached the ballot by signature petition, by allowing lawmakers to instead debate and create policy, despite nearly 200,000 Coloradans intent on placing the measure on the ballot.
Polis has said the work of the special session will not become law if Prop. 108, along with Amendment 50, are not pulled from the ballot. Advance Colorado has committed from pulling Prop. 108 and Amendment 50 from the ballot.