Colorado schools will have to find another source of revenue or continue to cut their already sparse budgets after Proposition 103 was defeated by Colorado voters on Tuesday.
In Jefferson County the measure was defeated 77,045 votes against the measure to 45,747 in favor and similarly 36,343 to 16,076 votes in Adams County in early unofficial numbers. The state defeated the tax increase by 64.1 percent voting no across the state.
The measure was proposed by state Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, and would have increased state income taxes from 4.63 percent to 5 percent and the state sales tax from 2.9 percent to 3 percent, increasing state tax revenues by $536.1 million in its first year purportedly for education funding.
“Because of the defeat of Proposition 103, the state of Colorado will be required to continue reducing the budget for K-12 education. The projections have told us that nearly $100 million will be lost by Colorado school districts in the next budget cycle. Jeffco will continue to reduce the budget by $70 million over the next two school years,” said Jeffco Superintendent Cindy Stevenson.
The initiative’s wording states that the revenue would have been required to be spent only on public education funding in preschool through 12th grade, but that discretion would have been up to the state legislature, a fact that voters could simply not overlook. The increase would have raised $2.9 billion from state taxpayers over its five-year life.
“I think personally it’s comforting that struggling families won’t have hundreds of dollars taken from them and they will be able to spend it on more important things like food or heat,” said Natalie Menten, a Lakewood citizen who ran for state senate in 2008. Menten was also a part of the Speaker’s Bureau, which helped lead the way in debates to defeat the measure. “This tax would have had a very negative effect on families in this recession,” Menten added.
Jefferson County District R-1, which endorsed the measure in October, is now tasked with cutting $70 million from the district’s budget over the next two years and is still undecided on whether or not they will go to the voters with a mill levy override or bond request in 2012, said Stevenson.
“We will strive to sustain our traditions of excellence but every school and every classroom will feel these reductions. Eventually the community will have to come together to solve Jeffcos financial crisis for Jeffcos children,” Stevenson added.
Adams County Five Star Schools is looking to cut an additional $14 million from next year’s budget in addition to the $45 million the district slashed over the past two years, said Adams 12 Director of Communications Joe Ferdani.
In the budget proposal by Gov. John Hickenlooper released Tuesday, the state looks to cut public education funding by $89 million in 2012-2013.
This increase had an estimated annual cost of $2,169 to $2,711 per household according to a study released by the Independence Institute in Golden. Authored by Barry Poulson, a former professor of Economics at University of Colorado-Boulder and John D. Merrifield, a professor of economics at the University of Texas, the paper also found that Proposition 103 would have cost the state between 7,400 and 11,600 jobs, thus reducing the base of taxpayers in the state.
Proposition 103 received over 98,369 valid signatures for valid placement in August, according to the Secretary of State’s Office, but failed to garner adequate public support outside of that. Both Hickenlooper and fellow Democrats in the state Senate held off their support of the proposition before it went to the people. In mid-August, Proposition 103 saw support at 45 percent with opposition topping that at 47 percent, according to a poll by Public Policy Polling, a North Carolina-based company. Seven percent of those polled were undecided.