Earlier this week conservative group Compass Colorado caught Governor Hickenlooper lying to national reporters about where the money from the proposed pot tax Prop AA would go. Hickenlooper told the reporters that the money wouldn’t go to “public education or anything like that.”

Except the first $40 million goes to building schools.

Rather than admit his lie, Hick’s spokesman made a rather pathetic attempt to excuse away his flub. For some reason, the governor’s political team seems almost incapable of admitting mistakes.

And now the Denver Post editorial board is taking the governor to task, calling him “flat wrong”:

Sometimes politicians should just admit they misspoke rather than than try to explain a dubious statement away…

But instead of just saying as much, the governor’s spokesman offered this explanation:

“Public education is not the same as school construction. The governor didn’t say the money goes into the classroom. We know some of the money goes for school construction.”

Actually, funding for school construction is funding for public education. And not only that, Amendment 64 backers sold it last year in part on the basis that it funded schools.

As we pointed out yesterday, Hick’s flub has come back to bite him in more than one way. First he gets hit for lying to the public, and two he generated a round of stories about how Prop AA funds education. That is exactly what Hickenlooper and other supporters of the billion dollar income tax increase Amendment 66 hoped to avoid at the time when ballots were arriving in voters’ mailboxes.

Thanks, Hick, we opponents of Amendment 66 appreciate it.