May 29, 2004

Tax-cutwise, I'm holier than thou.

That's the claim former Rep. Bob Schaffer made last Monday during a debate with Pete Coors, his rival for the Republican Senate nomination.

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When you agree with your fellow conservative on most issues, you have to stress whatever advantages you think you have. Schaffer maintained Republicans should vote for him because he's "the only proven tax-cutter."

He argued that Coors, or at least his brewery, had opposed the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and supported moves to increase both property and sales taxes.

Did Schaffer have a point?

Only partly. TABOR was turned down by the voters in 1988 and 1990 before squeaking to victory in 1992. Published reports confirm that the brewery was in fact opposed at least to the tougher 1988 version - but then, so were former Sen. Bill Armstrong and former Rep. Hank Brown, who are now supporting Schaffer. Indeed most of the establishment in both parties fought TABOR. (Armstrong said Friday he had "no memory" of his public stand on the three TABOR amendments, but "I'm sure I must have voted for them.")

More to the point, Pete Coors didn't become chief executive officer at the brewery until 1993, after all three elections had taken place. Therefore he wasn't ultimately responsible for the company's political contributions. He said at the debate he wasn't opposed to TABOR.

Schaffer had a stronger case when it comes to property and sales taxes.

Records at the secretary of state's office show that in 1998 the Coors brewery gave $25,000 to the campaign promoting the 0.1 percent regional sales tax for the Denver Broncos' new stadium. (That would be payback for any support the Broncos might have given to the 0.1 percent sales tax approved by voters in 1990 to build Coors Field.)

In 1999 the brewery gave $15,000 to the group that successfully promoted the bonds to build light rail down Interstate 25. That did not increase the Regional Transportation District's tax rate, but did de-Bruce RTD so it could keep its excees funds instead of returning them to voters.

Then in July 2003, the Coors brewery gave Citizens for Property Tax Reform $7,000 to promote an initiative that would have changed the Gallagher Amendment and thus ultimately raised residential property taxes. The measure lost.

Schaffer didn't mention it, but the brewery has given 24 gifts totaling $17,275 to various state Democratic campaign organizations since 1994. But that's a drop in the bucket compared to the brewery's contributions to Republican candidates and their organizations through the years. Coors doesn't even pretend to be bipartisan in its politics.

The "who's purer on taxes" issue is interesting, but Republicans will probably vote in August for whoever they think is most electable in November.

The Paul Childs shooting settlement: If you, or your eighth-grader, did the math from figures in the newspaper stories on the city's settlement of the Paul Childs shooting case, you might have figured out that the total number of dollars paid out will be $1,654,207, not the headlined $1,325,000.

That's an extra $329,207. How come?

The answer lies in the value of money over time. The city wasn't lying. It will write checks totaling exactly $1.325 million over the next few weeks.

The first check, for $726,115, will be written to Helen Childs, Paul's mother, and to her law firm, Holland and Hart.

A second check, for $598,885, will be written to the New York Life Insurance & Annuity Co. That company will be responsible for making monthly payouts over time to Helen Childs and her daughter.

Together the two will get $928,092 over 20 years, so you can see that New York Life is counting on earning some interest over the years to cover the payout and its own profit.

Now why would the settlement be structured that way? The annuity, apparently, helps the Childs family with income taxes. They asked for it. As for the big lump sum payment, that will enable the lawyers to get their share of the total amount, whatever it is, up front. No annuity for them.

Their contract with Childs is private, but the best guess is they'll get about a third of the $1.325 million.

That's $441,666, which the Denver lawyers will presumably share with the high-powered Johnnie Cochran of Los Angeles, whose fearsome reputation scared the city into settling in the first place.

DeGette's challenger: Denver Republicans never give up hope despite having decades of odds and history against them. On Thursday they chose financial consultant Roland Chicas as their candidate to challenge Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette in the 1st Congressional District this fall.

Chicas won 73 percent of the delegate vote at the Republican 1st Congressional District Assembly, keeping challengers Mel Hilgenberg and Randy Swann off the primary ballot. Chicas ran for the same job two years ago, but was shut out at the assembly by carpetbagging state Sen. Ken Chlouber, who was led to slaughter that November.

GOP speaker: Giving the keynote address to the Republican State Assembly in Denver June 5 will be Dorothy Bush Koch, kid sister of the president. Her husband, Robert P. Koch, was a staffer for two top Democratic congressman before being named head of the Wine Institute, which promotes the California grape.

blakep@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5119.

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