Schools, streets, water get over billion dollars

Voters across Colorado — from Longmont to Idaho Springs and Denver to Hayden — approved more than a billion dollars in taxation for public projects in this week’s election, in a wellspring of investment that experts say illustrates the draw of local initiatives.

The lion’s share of that belonged to Denver, with its $937 million bond package, but dozens of smaller communities throughout the state also gave a green light to tens of millions of dollars in tax hikes, tax extensions and retention of tax revenue to pay for everything from schools and street repairs to water system improvements to downtown development projects.

When it’s a local proposition, as opposed to one pitched at the state level, it’s an easier sell, said Sam Mamet, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League.

“There’s a high trust in local government,” he said. “When the proposal is sold clearly to the voters, they say yes far more than they say no.”

Since Colorado voters ushered in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights in 1992, Mamet said tax increases at the local level get a yes vote 56 percent of the time while bond issues see a 60 percent approval rate.

TABOR overrides, which allow cities and towns to hang on to revenues that exceed what state law permits them to collect, see success nearly 9 out of 10 times they are on the ballot.

“Voters in a community, when they are told what the tax is going to be used for, they more often say yes than no,” Mamet said.

University of Colorado at Boulder political science professor Ken Bickers agreed, noting that if voters can see it, taste it or walk and drive on it, the tax proposal has a far better chance of prevailing.

“These things at the local level — basic infrastructure needs — tend to pass,” Bickers said. “Citizens at the local level can monitor the money and see how it is being used and whether they like it or not.”

That even goes for tax-averse strongholds such as El Paso County, whose voters on Tuesday gave their blessing to three big tax asks: a $14.5 million TABOR override for transportation and other projects in the county; new stormwater fees in Colorado Springs; and a $42 million property tax increase for the city’s School District 11.

Tracie Rainey, executive director of the Colorado School Finance Project, said there was likely a fair amount of “pent-up demand” in Colorado Springs to make updates to aging school buildings and technology, especially since voters last passed a tax hike for the district 17 years ago.

In Mesa County Valley School District 51, it’s been 13 years since voters approved new funding for schools. That drought ended Tuesday, when voters passed a $118.5 million bond measure that will pay to replace Orchard Mesa Middle School and upgrade security features across the district.

Voters also approved a $6.5 million mill levy override to help fund, among other things, a curriculum update in the district. Rainey said with diminished state spending on education, voters realize the money has to come from somewhere.

“The loss of revenues to K-12 schools is obviously taking a toll,” she said.

But that doesn’t mean a handful of school funding requests weren’t shot down across Colorado this week. Voters in Bethune, Crowley County School District RE 1-J and Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 all said no to tax increases. In Brighton’s 27J school district, voters said no thanks to a proposed $12 million mill levy override.

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said District 11 advocates “did a really good turnout effort and they won.” Many of the school districts surrounding the city have seen success at the ballot box over the last few years, he said, putting pressure on voters in Colorado Springs to finally approve new funding.

In terms of money for transportation and implementation of a stormwater fee, Suthers said, the city made a concerted effort to make people understand the necessity of those measures.

The stormwater situation was threatening to spur so much litigation from environmental regulators that the city risked being on the hook for $20 million in legal fees every year trying to defend itself, Suthers said. Voters, he said, saw that as an important issue to resolve, even though it will cost homeowners $5 a month and commercial and industrial property owners $30 per acre.

The $14.5 million transportation request, a chunk of which will go to widen Interstate 25 north of the city, was given a boost by a fiveyear, $250 million sales tax increase Colorado Springs voters passed two years ago to fund road improvements.

Suthers said the 2015 measure served as a test case that skeptical voters this year could point to as an example of responsible government spending.

It’s not that El Paso County residents have suddenly become spendthrifts, he said. Rather, they respect a tax hike request when they can clearly see what will come from it.

“They want specifics that they can hold government accountable for performance,” Suthers said.