T-Mobile Unit Beats City Tax Bill at Colorado Supreme Court

The Colorado Supreme Court Monday rejected a $1.64 million assessment on a T-Mobile unit, ruling that Lakewood, Colo., improperly changed its business and occupation tax on telephone service without putting it to voters.

Lakewood had asked the justices to overturn a trial court order striking down the tax ordinances for violating the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. A 1992 amendment to the state constitution, TABOR requires state and local tax authorities to put any “new tax,” “tax rate increase,” or “tax policy change” on the ballot.

Both ordinances, the latest versions of a single measure first enacted in 1969, “created ...