Elections have consequences, as President Barack Obama famously reminded us, and that means there are winners and losers. The winners are more in tune with public sentiment, so they get more of a say than the losers over what happens next.

Among the losers in last Tuesday’s trouncing of Proposition HH on the statewide ballot were the elected lawmakers who had pitched it to voters – i.e., ruling Democrats at the Legislature.

Particularly the proposal’s lead sponsors: state Senate President Steve Fenberg of Boulder; Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver; and state Reps. Chris deGruy Kennedy of Lakewood and Mike Weissman of Aurora. Alongside them, the governor and stakeholder groups that ardently had championed Prop. HH are losers, too.

As a special legislative session looms, those losers must yield to the winners.

Winners include the diminished but, maybe, reenergized Republican minorities in the state House and Senate that had denounced then-Senate Bill 303 last spring as it made its way to the ballot through the legislative pipeline.

Also among the winners are the stakeholder groups that exposed the deceptive and convoluted Prop. HH for the ripoff it was – an attempt to pass a massive tax hike concealed in tepid property-tax relief.

Of course, the biggest winners were Colorado’s rank-and-file taxpayers. They now won’t have to give up their surplus-revenue refunds to grow the state government while also being forced, incredibly, to pay for their temporary property-tax cut.

It is those winners who must have the upper hand in the special session that starts Friday. And it is up to Gov. Jared Polis to ensure their views are heeded in the legislation that emerges.

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It is Polis who rightly called the session to come up with a real fix for Colorado’s skyrocketing property taxes – now that Prop. HH’s fake solution has been rejected. So it is also Polis’ duty to shift tack, fundamentally, from his support for the misbegotten measure.

Intensive work with sleeves rolled up lies ahead for lawmakers in the coming days as they bargain and compromise with each other and the governor in shaping a solution.

The details of the resulting legislation are anybody’s guess for the moment, and no solution will be perfect. However, some basic assumptions – think of them as guardrails – must guide lawmakers and the governor in the light of HH’s pummeling at the hands of voters:

• A reduction in the statewide assessment rate on people’s property must be substantial. Polis must reject attempts merely to freeze the rate in place; it was temporarily reduced only slightly by the Legislature two year ago and is slated to go back up next year.

• It is nonsense – and defies simple math – to claim as some do that the state must “backfill” local governments to offset reduced revenue that will result from statewide property tax relief. Soaring property values have been filling local coffers and will continue to assure ample increases that keep apace of inflation once property tax relief is enacted.

• Under no circumstances should lawmakers or the governor consider another attempt to tap Coloradans’ surplus-revenue refunds – aka “TABOR” refunds – as part of the solution. That approach helped bury HH.

Let’s remember Tuesday’s vote tally wasn’t a hair-splitter but an utter thrashing. Prop. HH lost by 20 percentage points. No uncertainty there. It is a mandate, if ever there was one.

Coloradans desperately need property-tax relief. And they want the real deal. The governor must make it happen.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board