Legislative

ACEC/CO Opposes 2010 Ballot Initiatives that Will Affect Colorado’s Communities – ACEC/CO Members Asked to Act Now!

Three ballot measures – Amendment 60, 61 and Proposition 101 - will be on the 2010 ballot that will have a drastic and negative impact on Colorado’s communities. ACEC/CO’s Board of Directors has taken a position to oppose these initiatives and encourages our members to educate themselves to the impacts they will have on services provided by our local municipalities and our state.

In the next few days members will be receiving a request from ACEC/CO to financially support this effort by contributing to the Don’t Hurt Colorado Campaign. The funds that ACEC/CO raises will be matched by ACEC national through the ACEC Minuteman Fund. The Minuteman Fund helps member organizations such as ACEC/CO fight local initiatives that negatively impact our members’ businesses. We ask your support in this endeavor as it not only affects your businesses but the community in which you live. What will our communities and state look like if these initiatives pass? Is this what we want for our communities and state?

NEW: Watch the KRDO Pueblo news video with Sam Mamet, Executive Director of CML, discussing these initiatives

Additional Resources

Brief summary of these ballot measures:

ü Amendment 60 would:

o Require school districts to cut property tax rates in half by 2020; losing about $1 billion annually. The difference is to be made up by state revenues.

o Repeal all past votes to retain property tax revenues above TABOR limits; repeals “de-brucing”.

o Require enterprises and authorities to pay property taxes, and require local governments to offset that revenue with lower tax rates.

ü Amendment 61 would:

o Eliminate Colorado’s ability to build or expand its schools, roads, hospitals, college buildings, light rail, water and sewer systems, prisons by doing away with state and local bonding. By eliminating the use of long term bonds for large projects repayment costs will rise to exorbitant levels

o Mean local districts would have to repay bonds within ten years, instead of a reasonable time frame such as 20-30 years.

o Prohibit using revenue anticipation notes and certificates of participation.

ü Proposition 101 would:

o Eliminate a major funding source for road and bridges construction across the state by drastically reducing vehicle registration fees to $10; this fee hasn’t been this low since 1919. Not only would state highway projects be cut, but local projects would be as well, since cities and counties receive a major portion of their road funding from this fee.

o The Specific Ownership Tax on cars would be reduced to $2 on new cars and $1 on used cars. This revenue helps fund school districts and other local government priorities.

For more information, please check out the Coloradans for Responsible Reform campaign’s website at www.DontHurtColorado.com. CFRR is a pro-Colorado, pro-business group formed in 1994. Additional details of these initiatives impacts can be found at The Bell Policy Center at: http://thebell.org/node/1231.

Throughout the next few months, ACEC/CO will be keeping our members informed about these initiatives
If you have any questions, please contact Marilen Reimer at the ACEC/CO office.