When the president of the largest teachers union in Colorado, Kerrie Dallman, took to Twitter to call out Governor Hickenlooper for hiding on the tax increase campaign, it wasn’t just because she had put her organization’s reputation on the line. It was because she had also ponied up a cool quarter million for an initial investment in the campaign to raise taxes by a billion dollars a year.

Reports Ed News Colorado:

The Colorado Education Association has provided an initial donation of $250,000 for the campaign to pass a $950 million K-12 tax increase, according to a contribution and spending report filed Monday.

The group Colorado Commits to Kids reported total contributions of $342,300 and spending of $82,030 since it registered with the state on June 7. It has $260,269 in cash on hand…

Political observers believe the Colorado Commits war chest will have to grow considerably if the initiative has a chance of passage. Proponents of 2005’s Referendum C, often cited as a model for this year’s campaign, raised about $4 million. Some think the Initiative 22 campaign will need considerably more money than that, given that Colorado voters have never passed a general tax-rate increase since the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights was approved in 1992.

Yes, you read that right. Colorado voters have never passed a general tax-rate increase since TABOR passed over 20 years ago.

But don’t let that stop you from wasting your members’ hard earned money, Colorado Education Association. It’s not like that money could be used on teacher training or other kinds of professional development, right?

What’s shocking is that the CEA’s initial donation of $250,000 is nearly four times the total donations the CEA gave to the last tax hike campaign in 2011, Prop 103, when it donated $75,000.

With the CEA putting their money where their mouth is, how long do you think they’ll sit by while Governor Hickenlooper ponders his own position?