By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun
Colorado taxpayers may foot the bill twice if Democratic lawmakers manage to pass a resolution directing the legislature to sue the state in an attempt to invalidate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
That’s because not only will taxpayers likely be responsible for paying the lawyers hired by the legislature to bring the case, but they’ll also be on the hook for the costs incurred by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office to defend against the legal challenge to TABOR, a constitutional amendment voters approved in 1992.
If House Joint Resolution 1023 passes as expected, the General Assembly’s nonpartisan Office of Legislative Legal Services would likely hire a group of attorneys to file the lawsuit. In the past, the legislature’s third-party legal bills in much smaller cases have cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
The last major lawsuit challenging TABOR, which was unsuccessful, took 10 years to litigate and cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars before adjustments for inflation.
State Rep. Sean Camacho, a Denver Democrat and a lead sponsor of the resolution, said there’s a chance an attorney or group of lawyers may offer to represent the legislature for free given the high-profile nature of the case. There don’t appear to be rules prohibiting the General Assembly from accepting pro bono representation.