Where is Rob O'Dell when you need him? If this story about the Republicans in the state legislature raising individuals' property taxes to cut $70 million from the state budget were about Tucson's City Council, we'd have a screaming headline and blame, blame, blame pointed at every Council member.

We might also have learned early in the story that people whose homes are worth half a million or more get a huge break on the tax hike, making this a regressive property tax.

But since O'Dell and the Star are only attack dogs when it comes to the Democrat-majority City Council (and, of course, TUSD), we hear the story told differently. The Star goes as light as it can on Republican legislators.

As always with the Star, we begin with the headline:

Surtax of $147 on home in TUSD

If I didn't know better, I'd think TUSD was the guilty party here, raising our taxes. That's par for the course for the Star, which can never decide who to trash more, TUSD or the City Council.

Here are the heads on the same story in the Trib and the Sun. Note that neither mentions a school district by name.

Some homeowners in for sticker shock next school year

Property taxes to rise in some school districts

It's a Howard Fischer story with local information added by the Star's Alexis Huicochea, so most of it appears in all three papers. Here is the way the first paragraph reads in the Trib and the Sun. Watch for the quotes around the last word, "fairness."

Homeowners in a handful of school districts are in for a nasty surprise because of some changes state lawmakers made in education finance laws in the name of “fairness.”

The Star removed the quotes. Just took them out. So, while the word "fairness" is made suspect by the quotes in the original, the Star's version says, Really, this property tax hike is fair. Here's the paragraph from the Star.

Homeowners in a handful of school districts are in for an unpleasant surprise because of some changes that state lawmakers made in education-finance laws in the name of fairness.

Word for word, except the quotes are removed. Purposely. It's not an inadvertent typo. The story was cut-and-pasted, then edited. Removing the quotes to alter the meaning of the paragraph was an editorial decision.

There's more to say about the ways the Star butchered the story in the interest of softening the blame on Republicans for purposely and consciously raising property taxes while adhering to their No New Taxes pledge at the state level. You can read more below the fold.