Amendment B would help community-based services
Imagine! connects children, youth, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities with opportunities and services in their communities. Last year, Imagine! helped more than 4,200 of our friends and neighbors actively participate in their communities, go to summer camps, find jobs, and secure safe housing.
Organizations across the state similar to ours provided the same opportunities to nearly 30,000 Coloradans. Funding from local taxes are critical to the success of these services.
Our work provides us with a frontline view of the importance of Amendment B. It provides communitybased organizations like ours, as well as schools, fire departments, libraries, and first responders with the ability to maintain critical services. It does this by repealing Colorado’s outdated Gallagher Amendment.
Gallagher was placed in our state constitution in 1982. It created a formula for property taxes, which are a primary source of funding for local services. At the heart of the formula is a ratio requiring 45 percent of property taxes to come from residential properties (homes) and 55 percent to come from nonresidential properties
(local businesses, farms, ranches, commercial).
As Colorado has changed, Gallagher has failed to keep up. Residential properties now make up 80 percent of the overall property value in Colorado. This has required Gallagher to automatically drop statewide residential tax rates to maintain its ratio.
While that may sound reasonable, the reality is that this approach has left vital services underfunded, and in some cases, at risk of going unfunded.
One of the many services our organization provides is emergency and crisis management for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Much of this work requires helping members of our community find safe housing options. It is 100 percent supported by local tax funding.
If services like this cannot be supported due to a lack of local funding, they simply will not exist. Removing these locally led safety nets will put more people at risk for being placed in institutional residential settings, which limit their ability to fully engage in their communities.
And even those who aren’t at risk of institutionalization may face the greater peril of being forced into unsafe living situations. These are outcomes that are both financially and socially harmful to us all.
The costs of institutionalization dwarf local programs like ours and would be borne by taxpayers. Even more importantly, the safety and well being of thousands of Coloradans would be greatly diminished.
Another unfortunate reality of Gallagher’s broken formula is that vital community services are increasingly forced to compete against each other for funding. Undercutting budgets for local services does not create efficiencies that deliver more with less. It just creates less. Less opportunity for residents of different abilities, less support for schools and families navigating a difficult school year, and fewer resources for those we depend on to protect us and our homes.
We join a growing number of Coloradans in our cities and rural communities who understand we need a better solution than Gallagher can provide. Amendment B is that solution.
It would repeal Gallagher’s failed formula from our constitution and freeze property tax rates. Residential property owners in Colorado will keep the third lowest property tax rate in the nation.
Amendment B is a way for Colorado communities to invest in themselves without raising taxes. A driving idea behind our work is to provide opportunities for all Coloradans. Amendment B is an important step in achieving that mission, and deserves our support. Vote “yes” on Amendment B.
Rebecca Novinger is chief executive officer of Imagine!, which serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in Boulder and Broomfield counties. Imagine! services include educational and therapeutic services, job training and placement, recreation and leisure activities, opportunities for community living, behavioral health services, technology solutions, and support for families.